| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Freshness of Poetic Perception | | By Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) |
| | | DAY follows day; years perish; still mine eyes | |
| Are opened on the self-same round of space; | |
| Yon fadeless forests in their Titan grace, | |
| And the large splendors of those opulent skies. | |
| I watch, unwearied, the miraculous dyes | 5 |
| Of dawn or sunset; the soft boughs which lace | |
| Round some coy dryad in a lonely place, | |
| Thrilled with low whispering and strange sylvan sighs: | |
| Weary? The poet’s mind is fresh as dew, | |
| And oft refilled as fountains of the light. | 10 |
| His clear child’s soul finds something sweet and new | |
| Even in a weed’s heart, the carved leaves of corn, | |
| The spear-like grass, the silvery rim of morn, | |
| A cloud rose-edged, and fleeting stars at night! | | | | |
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