Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/305

           And the great basins,
Fountains, cisterns and vast reservoirs
Supplying man with bounteous blessings
           And delights;

            The wind and waves
Sweet instruments of music
With all their delicate, vibrating chords
Sounding from shore to shore, accompanied by
Thousands of voices from the sea and land,
And all in matchless harmony composing
The choir of Nature's temple and her God.

You who can analyze the various parts
Of this great structure, with its countless domes
Towering beyond where human thought has reached,
May boast to comprehend the wondrous wisdom
The great Architect displays in this, His handiwork.

           To me
The smallest seed contains enough
To make man's great devices seem but small,
Though to the casual observer it might seem
Of small importance, a mere lifeless thing,
Possessing neither beauty, grace or worth;
But place it where it can draw sustenance
From the rich soil, the dews, refreshing showers
And the warm sunbeams;

           All is still;
No faint suggestion of a change disturbs the spot—
But go thy way; when a few days or weeks have passed—behold,
From that same spot, two tiny leaflets peep and seem to say,
"Have we not earned a place in which to grow?"

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