Classic Poem

ONCE MORE

Once more the robin flutes in glee,
On heat returning.
The living juices in the trees
Are shooting in the early leaves, —
The blossoms break,
And lusty nature wide awake
Her pleasant task sits learning.

The fleecy clouds scud o'er the blue,
In sudden glory.
The woods are full of whistling birds,
And nature, in strange mystic words,
Relates once more,
In the same strains as oft before,
The one old golden story:

That he who lives close to her heart,
Nor spurns her warning,
Shall all life's cunning secrets learn:
The trill of birds, the tress of fern,
The roar of seas,
The music of the wind-swept trees,
The glory of the morning;

Shall learn the noiseless laws of life,
The truths of beauty,
And find that Nature's meanest guise
Is full of wonder and surprise;
That everything
Doth to the surface ever bring
The blessedness of duty.