God's Green Book

I.     Out, out in the open fields,     Where the great, green book of God,     The book that its wisdom yields     To each soul that is not a clod,     Lies wide for the world to read,     I would go; and in flower and weed,     That letter the lines of the grass,     Would read of a better creed     Than that which the town-world has. II.     Too long in the city streets,     The alleys of grime and sin,     Have I heard the iron beats     Of the heart of toil; whose din     And the throb of whose wild unrest     Have stunned the song in my breast,     Have marred its music and slain     The bird that was once its guest,     And my soul would find it again. III.     Out there where the great, green book,     Whose leaves are the grass and trees,     Lies open; where each may look,     May muse and read as he please;     The book, that is gilt with gleams,     Whose pages are ribboned with streams;     That says what our souls would say     Of beauty that 's wrought of dreams     And buds and blossoms of May.