By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to waterfalls, One aspect to the desert and the lake. It was her stern necessity: all things Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower, Song, picture, form, space, thought, and character, Deceive us, seeming to be many things, And are but one. Beheld far off, they differ As God and devil; bring them to the mind, They dull its edge with their monotony. To know one element, explore another, And in the second reappears the first. The specious panorama of a year But multiplies the image of a day, -- A belt of mirrors round a taper's flame; And universal Nature, through her vast And crowded whole, an infinite paroquet, Repeats one note. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WAR IS KIND: 23 by STEPHEN CRANE ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1) by RICHARD HENRY STODDARD IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 55 by ALFRED TENNYSON LET ALL THE EARTH KEEP SILENCE by LUCY A. K. ADEE PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 45. ALLAH-AL-MUJIB by EDWIN ARNOLD |