Earth's Children Cleave To Earth
Earth's children cleave to Earth -- her frail
Decaying children dread decay.
Yon wreath of mist that leaves the vale
And lessens in the morning ray --
Look, how, by mountain rivulet,
It lingers as it upward creeps,
And clings to fern and copsewood set
Along the green and dewy steeps
Clings to the lowery kalmia, clings
To precipices fringed with grass,
Dark maples where the wood-thrush sing,
And bowers of fragrant sassafras.
Yet all in vain -- it passes still
From hold to hold, it cannot stay,
And in the very beams that fill
The world with glory, wastes away,
Till, parting from the mountain's brow,
It vanishes from human eye,
And that which sprung of earth is nor
A portion of the glorious sky.
by William Cullen Bryant
Here is a link to WCB: home.erols.com |
