HAWTHORN TIDE
19
But the sense of a life more lustrous with joy and
enkindled of glory
Than man's was ever or may be, and briefer than joys
most brief,
Bids man's heart bend and adore, be the man's head
golden or hoary,
As it leapt but a breath's time since and saluted the
flower and the leaf.
The rapture that springs into love at the sight of the
world's exultation
Takes not a sense of rebuke from the sense of
triumphant awe:
But the spirit that quickens the body fulfils it with
mute adoration,
And the knees would fain bow down as the eyes that
rejoiced and saw.
