How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees!
How graceful climb those shadows on my hill!
I fancy these pure waters and the flags
Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize;
And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.*

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
Clear of the

grave.

They added ridge to valley, brook to pond,
And sighed for all that bounded their domain;
"This suits me for a pasture; that's my park;
We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge,
And misty lowland, where to go for peat.
The land is well,-lies fairly to the south.

"T is good, when you have crossed the sea and back,

To find the sitfast acres where you left them.'

Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds
Him to his land, a lump of mould the more.
Hear what the Earth says:-

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I who have seen much,

Such have I never seen.

The lawyer's deed

Ran sure,

In tail,9

To them, and to their heirs

Who shall succeed,

Without fail,

Forevermore.

Here is the land,

Shaggy with wood,

9. I.e., "entailed"; legal term applied to an estate irrevocably settled upon designated descendants.

With its old valley,

Mound and flood.
But the heritors?-

Fled like the flood's foam.
The lawyer, and the laws,
And the kingdom,
Clean swept herefrom.

They called me theirs,
Who so controlled me;
Yet every one

Wished to stay, and is gone,
How am I theirs,

If they cannot hold me,
But I hold them?

When I heard the Earth-song,

I was no longer brave;

My avarice cooled

The soaring orbit of the muse exceeds that journey's length. 65

Nor profane affect to hit

Or compass that, by meddling wit,

Which only the propitious mind
Publishes when 't is inclined.

There are open hours

When the God's will sallies free,
And the dull idiot might see

2. Voluptuaries.

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The flowing fortunes of a thousand years;

Sudden, at unawares,

Self-moved, fly to the doors,

Nor sword of angels could reveal

What they conceal.

II

The rhyme of the poet
Modulates the king's affairs;
Balance-loving Nature
Made all things in pairs.3
To every foot its antipode;

Each color with its counter glowed;
To every tone beat answering tones,
Higher or graver;

Flavor gladly blends with flavor;
Leaf answers leaf upon the bough;
And match the paired cotyledons.*
Hands to hands, and feet to feet,
In one body grooms and brides;
Eldest rite, two married sides
In every mortal meet.
Light's far furnace shines,
Smelting balls and bars,

Forging double stars,

Glittering twins and trines.5

The animals are sick with love,

Lovesick with rhyme;

Each with all propitious Time
Into chorus wove.

Like the dancers' ordered band,
Thoughts come also hand in hand;
In equal couples mated,
Or else alternated;

Adding by their mutual gage,
One to other, health and age.

Solitary fancies go

Short-lived wandering to and fro,
Most like to bachelors,

Or an ungiven maid,

Not ancestors,

With no posterity to make the lie afraid,

Or keep truth undecayed.

3. Cf. the "trembling balance" in the poem "Compensation."

4. First leaves.

5. Triads, groups of threes.

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