Читать книгу The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell - James Russell Lowell - Страница 44

What were I, Love, if I were stripped of thee,

If thine eyes shut me out whereby I live.

Thou, who unto my calmer soul dost give

Knowledge, and Truth, and holy Mystery,

Wherein Truth mainly lies for those who see

Beyond the earthly and the fugitive,

Who in the grandeur of the soul believe,

And only in the Infinite are free?

Without thee I were naked, bleak, and bare

As yon dead cedar on the sea-cliff's brow;

And Nature's teachings, which come to me now,

Common and beautiful as light and air,

Would be as fruitless as a stream which still

Slips through the wheel of some old ruined mill.