VI
“I Scarcely Grieve, O Nature! at the Lot”
I scarcely grieve, O Nature! at the lotThat pent my life within a city’s bounds,And shut me from thy sweetest sights and sounds.Perhaps I had not learned, if some lone cotHad nursed a dreamy childhood, what the martTaught me amid its turmoil; so my youthHad missed full many a stern but wholesome truth.Here, too, O Nature! in this haunt of Art,Thy power is on me, and I own thy thrall.There is no unimpressive spot on earth!The beauty of the stars is over all,And Day and Darkness visit every hearth.Clouds do not scorn us: yonder factory’s smokeLooked like a golden mist when morning broke.