Nay, friend, the truth is high above!
Affection is no standing pool;
The living fountain of true love
Metes not its jet by line and rule.
Like all that is of truth and life,
Love plays, is free and hath a will,
Nor ever, trust me, without strife
Was tamed to turn a mill.
O, sir, beware of small conceit!
O stretch thy soul to feel and see
How grand, how strong, how deep, how sweet
Is Nature's harmony!
Nought there is found of rule and line,
Yet all the rugged and the wild,
By the deep power of life divine
Is fused and reconciled.
Each tree, each flow'ret pouring forth
The energy to each allowed,
Lo! the gaunt skeleton of the earth
Plump as a rolling cloud!