Classic Poem

Are you glad, my big brother, my deep-hearted oak?
Are you glad in each open-palm leaf?
Do you joy to be God's? Does it thrill you with living delight?
Are you sturdy in stalwart belief?
As you stand day and night,
As you stand through the nights and the days,
Do you praise?

O strenuous vine, do you run
As a man runs a race to a goal,
Your end that God's will may be done,
Like a strong-sinewed soul?
Are you glad? Do you praise? Do you run?
And shall I be afraid,
Like a spirit undone;
Like a sprout in deep shade;
Like an infant of days?

When I hear, when I see, and interpret aright
The winds in their jubilant flight;
The manifest peace of the sky and the rapture of light;
The paean of waves as they flow;
The stars that reveal
The deep bliss of the night;
The unspeakable joy of the air;
And feel as I feel,
And know as I know
God is there?

Hush!
For I hear him —
Enshrined in the heart of the wood:
'T is the priestly and reverent thrush,
Anointed to sing to our God:
And he hymns it full well,
All I stammer to tell,
All I yearn to impart.

Listen!
The strain
Shall sink into the heart,
And soften and swell
Till its meaning is plain,
And Love in its infinite harmonies, that shall remain,