V + 

Nature and Art + 

For an Album + 

“Man goeth forth” with reckless trust + 

Upon his wealth of mind, + 

As if in self a thing of dust + 

Creative skill might find; + 

He schemes and toils; stone, wood and ore + 

Subject or weapon of His power. + 

By arch and spire, by tower-girt heights, + 

He would his boast fulfil; + 

By marble births, and mimic lights⁠— + 

Yet lacks one secret still; + 

Where is the master-hand shall give + 

To breathe, to move, to speak, to live? + 

O take away this shade of might, + 

The puny toil of man, + 

And let great Nature in my sight + 

Unroll her gorgeous plan; + 

I cannot bear those sullen walls, + 

Those eyeless towers, those tongueless halls. + 

Art’s labour’d toys of highest name + 

Are nerveless, cold, and dumb; + 

And man is fitted but to frame + 

A coffin or a tomb; + 

Well suits, when sense is pass’d away, + 

Such lifeless works the lifeless clay. + 

Here let me sit where wooded hills + 

Skirt yon far-reaching plain; + 

While cattle bank its winding rills, + 

And suns embrown its grain; + 

Such prospect is to me right dear, + 

For freedom, health, and joy are here. + 

There is a spirit ranging through + 

The earth, the stream, the air; + 

Ten thousand shapes, garbs ever new, + 

That busy One doth wear; + 

In colour, scent, and taste, and sound + 

The energy of Life is found. + 

The leaves are rustling in the breeze, + 

The bird renews her song; + 

From field to brook, o’er heath, o’er trees, + 

The sunbeam glides along; + 

The insect, happy in its hour, + 

Floats softly by, or sips the flower. + 

Now dewy rain descends, and now + 

Brisk showers the welkin shroud; + 

I care not, though with angry brow + 

Frowns the red thunder-cloud; + 

Let hail-storm pelt, and lightning harm, + 

’Tis Nature’s work, and has its charm. + 

Ah! lovely Nature! others dwell + 

Full favour’d in thy court; + 

I of thy smiles but hear them tell, + 

And feed on their report, + 

Catching what glimpse an Ulcombe yields + 

To strangers loitering in her fields. + 

I go where form has ne’er unbent + 

The sameness of its sway; + 

Where iron rule, stern precedent, + 

Mistreat the graceful day; + 

To pine as prisoner in his cell, + 

And yet be thought to love it well. + 

Yet so His high dispose has set, + 

Who binds on each his part; + 

Though absent, I may cherish yet + 

An Ulcombe of the heart; + 

Calm verdant hope divinely given, + 

And suns of peace, and scenes of heaven;⁠— + 

A soul prepared His will to meet, + 

Full fix’d His work to do; + 

Not laboured into sudden heat, + 

But inly born anew.⁠— + 

So living Nature, not dull Art, + 

Shall plan my ways and rule my heart. + 