The Glory
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HE glory of the beauty of the morning,--The cuckoo crying over the untouched dew;The blackbird that has found it, and the doveThat tempts me on to something sweeter than love;White clouds ranged even and fair as new-mown hay;The heat, the stir, the sublime vacancyOf sky and meadow and forest and my own heart:--The glory invites me, yet it leaves me scorningAll I can ever do, all I can be,Beside the lovely of motion, shape, and hue,The happiness I fancy fit to dwellIn beauty's presence. Shall I now this dayBegin to seek as far as heaven, as hell,Wisdom or strength to match this beauty, startAnd tread the pale dust pitted with small dark drops,In hope to find whatever it is I seek,Hearkening to short-lived happy-seeming thingsThat we know naught of, in the hazel copse?Or must I be content with discontentAs larks and swallows are perhaps with wings?And shall I ask at the day's end once moreWhat beauty is, and what I can have meantBy happiness? And shall I let all go,Glad, weary, or both? Or shall I perhaps knowThat I was happy oft and oft before,Awhile forgetting how I am fast pent,How dreary-swift, with naught to travel to,Is Time? I cannot bite the day to the core.
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