William Brighty Rands (1823–1882)

GREAT, wide, beautiful, wonderful World!

With the wonderful water round you curl’d,

And the wonderful grass upon your breast—

World, you are beautifully drest.

The wonderful air is over me,

And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree;

It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,

And talks to itself on the tops of the hills.

You friendly Earth! how far do you go,

With the wheatfields that nod, and the rivers that flow,

With cities and gardens and cliffs and isles,

And people upon you for thousands of miles?

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,

I tremble to think of you, World, at all!

And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,

A whisper inside me seem’d to say—

‘You are more than the Earth, tho’ you are such a dot:

You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!’