On Heaven & Nature
Aug 13, 2023
What a foreign land! Majestic creatures
Beyond the scope of invention, and scenes
To slow quick thought with a calm reverence.
A swooping bird drops through the air, riding
The fall on a wind; with open talons
Will softly clutch a leafy limb, before
It hops up, branch by branch, plucking berries
To a grateful note amidst the glittering green!
Now, what inspires this? What initial place
Does Nature mirror, whose source is hidden
But flows and awes with infinite variety?
What title but Heaven deserves such a frame.
These concepts will visit one like a dream
And argue their existence through memory.
Not wholly false are such mute fantasies,
Still blind to the mind, but felt in the heart:
A recollected vision of Paradise!
