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| MY heart is full of inarticulate pain, | |
| And beats laborious. Cold ungenial looks | |
| Invade my sanctuary. Men of gain, | |
| Wise in success, well-read in feeble books | |
| No nigher come, I pray: your air is drear; | 5 |
| ’Tis winter and low skies when ye appear. | |
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| Beloved, who love beauty and fair truth, | |
| Come nearer me; too near ye cannot come; | |
| Make me an atmosphere with your sweet youth; | |
| Give me your souls to breathe in, a large room; | 10 |
| Speak not a word, for, see, my spirit lies | |
| Helpless and dumb; shine on me with your eyes. | |
| |
| O all wide places, far from feverous towns; | |
| Great shining seas; pine forests; mountains wild; | |
| Rock-bosomed shores; rough heaths, and sheep-cropt downs; | 15 |
| Vast pallid clouds; blue spaces undefiled— | |
| Room! give me room! give loneliness and air— | |
| Free things and plenteous in your regions fair! | |
| |
| White dove of David, flying overhead, | |
| Golden with sunlight on thy snowy wings, | 20 |
| Outspeeding thee my longing thoughts are fled | |
| To find a home afar from men and things; | |
| Where in his temple, earth o’erarched with sky, | |
| God’s heart to mine may speak, my heart reply. | |
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| O God of mountains, stars, and boundless spaces, | 25 |
| O God of freedom and of joyous hearts, | |
| When Thy face looketh forth from all men’s faces, | |
| There will be room enough in crowded marts! | |
| Brood Thou around me, and the noise is o’er, | |
| Thy universe my closet with shut door. | 30 |
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| Heart, heart, awake! The love that loveth all | |
| Maketh a deeper calm than Horeb’s cave. | |
| God in thee, can His children’s folly gall? | |
| Love may be hurt, but shall not love be brave?— | |
| Thy holy silence sinks in dews of balm; | 35 |
| Thou art my solitude, my mountain-calm! | |
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