Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Interpretation
By Richard Realf (1832–1878)[The Century Magazine. 1879.]
A
He plucked the grasses with his listless hands.
No voice was near him save the wishful sound
Of the sea cooing to the unbosomed sands.
He heard the audible pulse of nature beat.
He trembled greatly at the Word of God
Spoken in the rushes rustling at his feet.
He knew the rhythmic secret of the spheres,
He caught the cadence, and a noble hymn,
Swam swan-like in upon the gliding years.