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(From The Recollection)
* * * * * WE wandered to the Pine Forest | |
That skirts the Oceans foam, | |
The lightest wind was in its nest, | |
The tempest in its home. | |
The whispering waves were half asleep, | 5 |
The clouds were gone to play, | |
And on the bosom of the deep | |
The smile of Heaven lay; | |
It seemed as if the hour were one | |
Sent from beyond the skies, | 10 |
Which scattered from above the sun | |
A light of Paradise. | |
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We paused amid the pines that stood | |
The giants of the waste, | |
Tortured by storms to shapes as rude | 15 |
As serpents interlaced, | |
And soothed by every azure breath | |
That under heaven is blown, | |
To harmonies and hues beneath, | |
As tender as its own; | 20 |
Now all the tree-tops lay asleep, | |
Like green waves on the sea, | |
As still as in the silent deep | |
The ocean woods may be. | |
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How calm it was!the silence there | 25 |
By such a chain was bound, | |
That even the busy woodpecker | |
Made stiller by her sound | |
The inviolable quietness; | |
The breath of peace we drew | 30 |
With its soft motion made not less | |
The calm that round us grew. | |
There seemed from the remotest seat | |
Of the wide mountain waste, | |
To the soft flower beneath our feet, | 35 |
A magic circle traced; | |
A spirit interfused around | |
A thrilling silent life, | |
To momentary peace it bound | |
Our mortal natures strife; | 40 |
And still I felt the centre of | |
The magic circle there | |
Was one fair form that filled with love | |
The lifeless atmosphere. | |
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We paused beside the pools that lie | 45 |
Under the forest bough, | |
Each seemed as t were a little sky | |
Gulfed in a world below; | |
A firmament of purple light, | |
Which in the dark earth lay, | 50 |
More boundless than the depth of night, | |
And purer than the day; | |
In which the lovely forests grew, | |
As in the upper air, | |
More perfect both in shape and hue | 55 |
Than any spreading there. | |
There lay the glade and neighboring lawn, | |
And through the dark green wood | |
The white sun twinkling like the dawn | |
Out of a speckled cloud. | 60 |
Sweet views, which in our world above | |
Can never well be seen, | |
Were imaged by the waters love | |
Of that fair forest green. | |
And all was interfused beneath | 65 |
With an Elysian glow, | |
An atmosphere without a breath, | |
A softer day below. | |
Like one beloved the scene had lent | |
To the dark waters breast | 70 |
Its every leaf and lineament | |
With more than truth exprest, | |
Until an envious wind crept by, | |
Like an unwelcome thought, | |
Which from the minds too faithful eye | 75 |
Blots one dear image out. * * * * * | |
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