"And midway, betwixt heaven and us,
Stands Nature in her fadeless grace,
Still pointing to our Father's house,
His glory on her mystic face."
Hayne found the inspiration for his verse in the scenes about his forest home: in the "fairy South Wind" that "floateth on the subtle wings of balm," in
"… the one small glimmering rill That twinkles like a wood-fay's mirthful eye,"
in the solitary lake
"Shrined in the woodland's secret heart,"
in
"His blasted pines, smit by the fiery West,
Uptowering rank on rank, like Titan spears,"
in the storm among the Georgian hills, in the twilight, that
"… on her virginal throat Wears for a gem the tremulous vesper star,"
and in the mocking-birds, whose