It leaned a little westward.
And now I think it knew,
And was waiting other voices
It long had listened to.
Once I was part of this old ruin
When I myself were young.
Out of pity I must leave you
And half the song unsung.
Hymn of Adoration
I AM grown weary for new scenes
But not of human make.
But O! for hills and long green fields,
A splintered, glittering lake.
This day I am an intimate
With sky and bird and tree.
With budding boughs and turbulent streams
And God’s immensity.
I am enamored with fresh days
Drenched with rain and sun.
The tho’t of thine omnipotence
O! God has made me dumb.
Thy goodness is so wide, a thing
Beat, for me slower time.
I cannot sing so great a song
In one short life like mine.
Sweet Distress
I HAVE known the beauty
Of a firegold west.
And from the hurt in rainsong
I shall never rest.
I heard the water running
From a green hill’s crest,
But what is sweet in sorrow
Hearts remember best.