1864

LIFE

by William Cullen Bryant

LIFE -

Oh Life! I breathe thee in the breeze,

I feel thee bounding in my veins,

I see thee in these stretching trees,

These flowers, this still rock's mossy stains. -

This stream of odors flowing by

From clover-field and clumps of pine,

This music, thrilling all the sky,

From all the morning birds, are thine. -

Thou fill'st with joy this little one,

That leaps and shouts beside me here,

Where Isar's clay-white rivulets run

Through the dark woods like frighted deer. -

Ah! must thy mighty breath, that wakes

Insect and bird, and flower and tree,

From the low-trodden dust, and makes

Their daily gladness, pass from me- -

Pass, pulse by pulse, till o'er the ground

These limbs, now strong, shall creep with pain,

And this fair world of sight and sound

Seem fading into night again? -

The things, oh Life! thou quickenest, all

Strive upward toward the broad bright sky,

Upward and outward, and they fall

Back to earth's bosom when they die. -

All that have borne the touch of death,

All that shall live, lie mingled there,

Beneath that veil of bloom and breath,

That living zone 'twixt earth and air. -

There lies my chamber dark and still

The atoms trampled by my feet

There wait, to take the place I fill

In the sweet air and sunshine sweet. -

Well, I have had my turn, have been

Raised from the darkness of the clod,

And for a glorious moment seen

The brightness of the skirts of God; -

And knew the light within my breast,

Though wavering oftentimes and dim,

The power, the will, that never rest,

And cannot die, were all from him. -

Dear child! I know that thou wilt grieve

To see me taken from thy love,

Wilt seek my grave at Sabbath eve

And weep, and scatter flowers above. -

Thy little heart will soon be healed,

And being shall be bliss, till thou

To younger forms of life must yield

The place thou fill'st with beauty now. -

When we descend to dust again,

Where will the final dwelling be

Of thought and all its memories then,

My love for thee, and thine for me? - -