HE lives within the hollow wood, From one clear dell he seldom ranges; His daily toil in solitude Revolves, but never changes. A still old man, with grizzled beard, Gray eye, bent shape, and smoke-tanned features, His quiet footstep is not feared By shyest woodland creatures. I love to watch the pale blue spire His scented labour builds above it; I track the woodland by his fire, And, seen afar, I love it. It seems among the serious trees The emblem of a living pleasure, It animates the silences As with a tuneful measure. And dream not that such humdrum ways Fold naught of Nature's charm around him; The mystery of soundless days Hath sought for him and found him. He hides within his simple brain An instinct innocent and holy, The music of a wood-bird's strain, -- Not blithe, nor melancholy, But hung upon the calm content Of wholesome leaf and bough and blossom -- An unecstatic ravishment Born in a rustic bosom. He knows the moods of forest things, He holds, in his own speechless fashion, For helpless forms of fur and wings A mild paternal passion. Within his horny hand he holds The warm brood of the ruddy squirrel; Their bushy mother storms and scolds, But knows no sense of peril. The dormouse shares his crumb of cheese, His homeward trudge the rabbits follow; He finds, in angles of the trees, The cup-nest of the swallow. And through this sympathy, perchance, The beating heart of life he reaches Far more than we who idly dance An hour beneath the beeches. Our science and our empty pride, Our busy dream of introspection, To God seem vain and poor beside This dumb, sincere reflection. Yet he will die unsought, unknown, A nameless headstone stand above him, And the vast woodland, vague and lone, Be all that's left to love him. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A TREE FALLEN ACROSS THE ROAD (TO HEAR US TALK) by ROBERT FROST THE PORTENT by HERMAN MELVILLE VAQUERO by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 7 by OMAR KHAYYAM BUDDHA AND BRAHMA by HENRY BROOKS ADAMS |