LET me be always one with earth Who bade her music through me run, Who through my veins poured singing mirth, Made me a dancer in her sun! Out of her living dust she made, -- The dust that once was leaves and trees; Grey dust of roses long decayed, Still warm with life of birds and bees; The dust of grass, the dust of clover, High forests that have long been dead, And dust of many a laughing lover, Whose songs are running in my head. . . All that earth has been, all she is, Her musics and her ecstasies, Cold winter rains, warm rains of spring, And the slow sun that makes her sing, -- I know them all, all earth's in me, I am earth's child, and I am earth; At one with her in grief and glee, I dream, with her, through death and birth. While I am living, give me speech Unconscious as the song of birds, So I may sing earth's praise, and teach Her beauty, though in broken words; When I am dead, let leaf and bough, And small grass, and anemone, Have this sweet life that I have now: Earth, bid your lovers rise from me! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 17 by CONRAD AIKEN ON HUNTINGDON'S 'MIRANDA' by SIDNEY LANIER IN A SWEDISH GRAVEYARD by EMMA LAZARUS ON THE PROPOSAL TO ERECT A MONUMENT IN ENGLAND TO LORD BYRON by EMMA LAZARUS THE GARDEN OF ADONIS by EMMA LAZARUS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. CHARLES BLISS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |