Sweet procession and slow,
Every step of the way
More precious each day,
Till the starlit airs blow,
Wake emotion that sleeps,
Stir the fount of the deeps.
O heaven's own fact
Eternal, that beauty,
As the sword on duty,
Hangs silent on act
Of nature forever,—
Soul and body together!
Nature, series divine
Of act and of word
From God's mouth seen or heard!
As thou bring'st bread and wine
I hear thy deep tone,
"O not these alone!"
All-divine unity!
Writes the heaven-touched mind
Responsive, once blind:
All-divine harmony!
Emotion's attest
In the glow of my breast.
["I AM."]
I am, and therefore these,
Existence is by me,—
Flux of pendulous seas,
The stable, free.
I am in blush of the rose,
The shimmer of dawn;
Am girdle Orion knows,
The fount undrawn.
I am earth's potency,
The chemic ray's, the rain's,
The reciprocity
That loads the wains.