A Thought of Paradise

“We receive but what we give,And in our life alone does nature live;Ours is her wedding-garment, ours her shroud;And, would we aught behold of higher worthThan that inanimate, cold world allow’dTo the poor, loveless, ever-anxious crowd,Ah! from the soul itself must issue forthA light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud,Enveloping the earth;And from the soul itself must there be sentA sweet and potent voice of its own birth,Of all sweet sounds the life and element.”--Coleridge.

Green spot of holy ground!If thou couldst yet be found,Far in deep woods, with all thy starry flowers;If not one sullying breathOf time, or change, or death,Had touch’d the vernal glory of thy bowers;

Might our tired pilgrim-feet,Worn by the desert’s heat,On the bright freshness of thy turf repose?Might our eyes wander thereThrough heaven’s transparent air,And rest on colours of the immortal rose?

Say, would thy balmy skiesAnd fountain-melodiesOur heritage of lost delight restore?Could thy soft honey-dewsThrough all our veins diffuseThe early, child-like, trustful sleep once more?

And might we, in the shadeBy thy tall cedars made,With angel-voices high communion hold?Would their sweet, solemn toneGive back the music gone,Our Being’s harmony, so jarr’d of old?

Oh no!--thy sunny hoursMight come with blossom-showers,All thy young leaves to spirit-lyres might thrill;But we--should we not bringInto thy realms of springThe shadows of our souls to haunt us still?

What could thy flowers and airsDo for our earth-born cares?Would the world’s chain melt off and leave us free?No!--past each living stream,Still would some fever-dreamTrack the lorn wanderers, meet no more for thee!

Should we not shrink with fearIf angel-steps were near,Feeling our burden’d souls within us die?How might our passions brookThe still and searching look,The star-like glance of seraph purity?

Thy golden-fruited groveWas not for pining love;Vain sadness would but dim thy crystal skies!Oh! thou wert but a partOf what man’s exiled heartHath lost--the dower of inborn Paradise!