Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Man and Nature lyrics
[Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Man and Nature lyrics]
A sad man on a summer day
Did look upon the earth and say
"Purple cloud the hill-top binding
Folded hills the valleys wind in
Valleys with fresh streams among you
Streams with bosky trees along you
Trees with many birds and blossoms
Birds with music-trembling bosoms
Blossoms dropping dews that wreathe you
To your fellow flowers beneath you
Flowers that constellate on earth
Earth that shakest to the mirth
Of the merry Titan Ocean
All his shining hair in motion!
Why am I thus the only one
Who can be dark beneath the sun?"
But when the summer day was past
He looked to heaven and smiled at last
Self-answered so
"Because, O cloud
Pressing with thy crumpled shroud
Heavily on mountain top
Hills that almost seem to drop
Stricken with a misty death
To the valleys underneath
Valleys sighing with the torrent
Waters streaked with branches horrent
Branchless trees that shake your head
Wildly o'er your blossoms spread
Where the common flowers are found
Flowers with foreheads to the ground
Ground that shriekest while the sea
With his iron smiteth thee
I am, besides, the only one
Who can be bright without the sun"
Did look upon the earth and say
"Purple cloud the hill-top binding
Folded hills the valleys wind in
Valleys with fresh streams among you
Streams with bosky trees along you
Trees with many birds and blossoms
Birds with music-trembling bosoms
Blossoms dropping dews that wreathe you
To your fellow flowers beneath you
Flowers that constellate on earth
Earth that shakest to the mirth
Of the merry Titan Ocean
All his shining hair in motion!
Why am I thus the only one
Who can be dark beneath the sun?"
But when the summer day was past
He looked to heaven and smiled at last
Self-answered so
"Because, O cloud
Pressing with thy crumpled shroud
Heavily on mountain top
Hills that almost seem to drop
Stricken with a misty death
To the valleys underneath
Valleys sighing with the torrent
Waters streaked with branches horrent
Branchless trees that shake your head
Wildly o'er your blossoms spread
Where the common flowers are found
Flowers with foreheads to the ground
Ground that shriekest while the sea
With his iron smiteth thee
I am, besides, the only one
Who can be bright without the sun"