Classic Poem

All Nature dies! wide over hill and plain,
The forests brown and withered meet the eye;
The flowers are gone, the birds will not remain,
The grass, so green of late, is pale and dry.
But what is Nature's death, though, far and wide
Thou see'st the emblems of her sure decay,
To Man's; to whom, in soul, thou art allied;
And who but now, unnoticed, passed away!
Daily he passes; in the lowly shed,
In the high palace, 'neath the open sky;
No world-wide symbols mark that He is dead,
No gorgeous splendor draws thy wondering eye;
Yet passed there from thee all that Heaven could give,
And more than could within all Nature live!