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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1607 Nature: the Artist

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Frederic LawrenceKnowles

1607 Nature: the Artist

SUCH hints as untaught Nature yields!

The calm disorder of the sea,

The straggling splendor of the fields,

The wind’s gay incivility.

O workman with your conscious plan,

Compass and square are little worth;

Copy (nay, only poets can)

The artless masonry of earth.

Go watch the windy spring’s carouse,

And mark the winter wonders grow,—

The graceful gracelessness of boughs,

The careless carpentry of snow!