Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EARTH-WORSHIP, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EARTH-WORSHIP, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Into the grass I fain would grow
Last Line: New leaves to hymn thy praise!
Subject(s): Earth; Grass; Life; Mythology - Classical; Pan (mythology); Praise; Worship; World


Into the grass I fain would grow
And know
What hidden powers, potent ministries,
What endless hands and lips and tongues and eyes
What baffled ecstasies
Struggle for utterance in the world below.
Into the life of leaves above the grass
I fain would pass,
And find what sort of region'd angels there
Twine their entangled hair,
What obscure nymphs, what dusky Dryades
Dwell in those ancient trees.
Into the moving clouds that sail remote,
Far from the earth I'd float;
Explore the wide and universal dome
Which is their home,
Track the air pathways of the wandering wind,
And seeking find
That old Olympus' top where Saturn's son,
His labour done,
Rests on his eagle, never more to roam.
Still pastures, rooted trees,
I am content with these:
I want no more than the exultant air.
O, while life lasts to me,
Let me grow part of thee,
Forgetting all the thoughts and ways of man,
Deep-region'd Pan!
In earth, in air, in the cool caverned sea,
Find full felicity,
And, dying, do thou from mine ashes raise
New leaves to hymn thy praise!





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