Health
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OUR miles at a leap, over the dark hollow land,To the frosted steep of the down and its junipers black,Travels my eye with equal ease and delight:And scarce could my body leap four yards. This is the best and the worst of it--Never to know,Yet to imagine gloriously, pure health. To-day, had I suddenly health,I could not satisfy the desire of my heartUnless health abated it,So beautiful is the air in its softness and clearness, while SpringPromises all and fails in nothing as yet;And what blue and what white is I never knewBefore I saw this sky blessing the land. For had I health I could not ride or run or flySo far or so rapidly over the landAs I desire: I should reach Wiltshire tired;I should have changed my mind before I could be in Wales.I could not love; I could not command love.Beauty would still be far offHowever many hills I climbed over;Peace would still be farther. Maybe I should not count it anythingTo leap these four miles with the eye;And either I should not be filled almost to bursting with desire,Or with my power desire would still keep pace. Yet I am not satisfiedEven with knowing I never could be satisfied.With health and all the power that liesIn maiden beauty, poet and warrior,In Caesar, Shakespeare, Alcibiades,Mazeppa, Leonardo, Michelangelo,In any maiden whose smile is lovelierThan sunlight upon dew,I could not be as the wagtail running up and downThe warm tiles of the roof slope, twitteringHappily and sweetly as if the sun itselfExtracted the songAs the hand makes sparks from the fur of a cat: I could not be as the sun.Nor should I be content to beAs little as the bird or as mighty as the sun.For the bird knows not of the sun,And the sun regards not the bird.But I am almost proud to love both bird and sun,Though scarce this Spring could my body leap four yards.
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