Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WRITTEN AFTER RECOVERY FROM A DANGEROUS ILLNESS, by HUMPHRY DAVY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WRITTEN AFTER RECOVERY FROM A DANGEROUS ILLNESS, by                    
First Line: Lo! O'er the earth the kindling spirits
Last Line: Ethereal dew to glad the earth with showers.
Subject(s): Sickness; Illness


Lo! o'er the earth the kindling spirits pour
The flames of life that bounteous nature gives;
The limpid dew becomes the rosy flower,
The insensate dust awakes, and moves, and lives.

All speaks of change: the renovated forms
Of long-forgotten things arise again;
The light of suns, the breath of angry storms,
The everlasting motions of the main --

These are but engines of the Eternal will,
The One Intelligence, whose potent sway
Has ever acted, and is acting still,
Whilst stars, and worlds, and systems all obey;

Without whose power, the whole of mortal things
Were dull, inert, an unharmonious band,
Silent as are the harp's untuned strings
Without the touches of the poet's hand

A sacred spark created by His breath,
The immortal mind of man His image bears;
A spirit living 'midst the forms of death,
Oppress'd but not subdued by mortal cares;

A germ, preparing in the winter's frost
To rise, and bud, and blossom in the spring;
An unfledged eagle by the tempest toss'd,
Unconscious of his future strength of wing;

The child of trial, to mortality
And all its changeful influences given;
On the green earth decreed to move and die,
And yet by such a fate prepared for heaven.

Soon as it breathes, to feel the mother's form
Of orbed beauty through its organs thrill,
To press the limbs of life with rapture warm,
And drink instinctive of a living rill;

To view the skies with morning radiance bright,
Majestic mingling with the ocean blue,
Or bounded by green hills, or mountains white,
Or peopled plains of rich and varied hue;

The nobler charms astonish'd to behold,
Of living loveliness, -- to see it move,
Cast in expression's rich and varied mould,
Awakening sympathy, compelling love;

The heavenly balm of mutual hope to taste,
Soother of life, affection's bliss to share;
Sweet as the stream amidst the desert waste,
As the first blush of arctic daylight fair;

To mingle with its kindred, to descry
The path of power; in public life to shine;
To gain the voice of popularity,
The idol of to-day, the man divine;

To govern others by an influence strong
As that high law which moves the murmuring main,
Raising and carrying all its waves along,
Beneath the full-orb'd moon's meridian reign;

To scan how transient is the breath of praise,
A winter's zephyr trembling on the snow,
Chill'd as it moves; or, as the northern rays,
First fading in the centre, whence they flow.

To live in forests mingled with the whole
Of natural forms, whose generations rise,
In lovely change, in happy order roll,
On land, in ocean, in the glittering skies;

Their harmony to trace; the Eternal cause
To know in love, in reverence to adore;
To bend beneath the inevitable laws,
Sinking in death, its human strength no more!

Then, as awakening from a dream of pain,
With joy its mortal feelings to resign;
Yet all its living essence to retain,
The undying energy of strength divine!

To quit the burdens of its earthly days,
To give to nature all her borrow'd powers, --
Ethereal fire to feed the solar rays,
Ethereal dew to glad the earth with showers.





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