Classic Poem

I lay full length upon a fragrant lawn,
Watching the Dawn
Unveil her trembling loveliness and bare
Her growing blushes to the placid stare
Of lakes, that woke to gaze without surprise
Into her own bewildered eyes;
Then caught her smile a moment after
And broke into a rippling laughter.

And as I dreamed, the mysteries of earth,
Unknown since birth,
In every tongue were suddenly made clear;
Nature translated and I seemed to hear
The thousand babel voices of the Spring
Each in its speech the others answering,
Mingling with songs of vaguely-felt desires
A myriad slumbers and a myriad fires.

I heard the buds beside the pasture-bars
Speak of the stars,
I heard the valley brooklets and the rills
Echo the meditations of the hills.
The singing leaves like countless tiny lutes
Sang of the dreams that stirred the deepest roots,
And every beckoning breeze seemed to disclose
The romance of the roadside and the rose.
The river grasses murmured for the free
And buoyant sea . . . .
So each one voiced its dream—but not a word
Of love and its wild wonders had I heard;
Dumb and insensate things that could not tell
Aught of the theme which Man has sung so well!
I left the place to learn of Love; and after,
I heard the lake break into rippling laughter.