William Cullen Bryant Quotes

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language.

The little wind-flower, whose just opened eye
Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at.

And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief,
And the year smiles as it draws near its death.

Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings.

Maidens hearts are always soft:
Would that men's were truer!

Oh, sun! that o'er the western mountains now
Goest down in glory! ever beautiful
And blessed is thy radiance, whether thou
Colourest the eastern heaven and night-mist cool,
Till the bright day-star vanish, or on high
Climbest and streamest thy white splendours from mid-sky.

Wild was the day; the wintry sea
Moaned sadly on New England's strand,
When first the thoughtful and the free,
Our fathers, trod the desert land.

Thine eyes are springs in whose serene
And silent waters heaven is seen;
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook.

Weep not that the world changes—did it keep
A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.

The victory of endurance born.

Here the free spirit of mankind, at length,
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant's unchained strength,
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race!

Ah, why
Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore
Only among the crowd and under roofs
That our frail hands have raised?

The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore,
And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.

Heed not the night; a summer lodge amid the wild is mine -
'Tis shadowed by the tulip-tree, 'tis mantled by the vine.

All things that are on earth shall wholly pass away,
Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye.