GAY, guiltless pair, What seek ye from the fields of heaven? Ye have no need of prayer; Ye have no sins to be forgiven. Why perch ye here, Where mortals to their Maker bend? Can your pure spirits fear The God ye never could offend? Ye never knew The crimes for which we come to weep. Penance is not for you, Blessed wanderers of the upper deep. To you 't is given To wake sweet Nature's untaught lays; Beneath the arch of heaven To chirp away a life of praise. Then spread each wing Far, far above, o'er lakes and lands, And join the choirs that sing In yon blue dome not reared with hands. Or, if ye stay, To note the consecrated hour, Teach me the airy way, And let me try your envied power. Above the crowd On upward wings could I but fly, I'd bathe in yon bright cloud, And seek the stars that gem the sky. 'T were heaven indeed Through fields of trackless light to soar, On Nature's charms to feed, And Nature's own great God adore. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PLANKED WHITEFISH by CARL SANDBURG FAITH AND DESPONDENCY by EMILY JANE BRONTE PAST AND PRESENT by ROWLAND EYLES EGERTON-WARBURTON MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 10 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI BARCLAY OF URY by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE SINGERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE STRICKEN HART by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT ON THE DISPOSITION OF MIND by JOHN BYROM TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE PLOUGHBOY by EDWARD CARPENTER |