YE fill my heart with gladness, verdant places, That 'mid the City greet me, where I pass; Methinks I see of angel-steps the traces, Where'er upon my pathway springs the grass. I pause before your gates at early morning, When lies the sward with glittering sheen o'erspread, And think the dew-drops there each blade adorning, Are angel's tears for mortal frailty shed. And ye -- earth's firstlings -- here in beauty springing, Erst in your cells by careful winter nursed -- And to the morning heaven your incense flinging, As at His smile ye forth in gladness burst -- How do ye cheer with hope my lonely hour, When on my way I tread despondingly; With thought that HE who careth for the flower, Will, in His mercy, still remember me. Breath of our nostrils -- THOU! whose love embraces -- Whose light shall never from our souls depart, Beneath thy touch hath sprung a green oasis Amid the arid desert of my heart. Thy sun and rain call forth the bud of promise, And with fresh leaves in spring time deck the tree; That where man's hand hath shut out nature from us, We, by these glimpses, may remember THEE! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO SEE THE STARS IN DAYLIGHT by JAMES GALVIN BRIGHTNESS AS A POIGNANT LIGHT by DAVID IGNATOW THE GARDEN OF ADONIS by EMMA LAZARUS BOOTH'S PHILIPPI by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: SHACK DYE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |