Inscription For The Entrance To A Wood.

Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs     No school of long experience, that the world     Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen     Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares,     To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood     And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade     Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze     That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm     To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here     Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men     And made thee loathe thy life. The primal curse     Fell, it is true, upon the unsinning earth,     But not in vengeance. God hath yoked to guilt     Her pale tormentor, misery. Hence, these shades     Are still the abodes of gladness; the thick roof     Of green and stirring branches is alive     And musical with birds, that sing and sport     In wantonness of spirit; while below     The squirrel, with raised paws and form erect,     Chirps merrily. Throngs of insects in the shade     Try their thin wings and dance in the warm beam     That waked them into life. Even the green trees     Partake the deep contentment; as they bend     To the soft winds, the sun from the blue sky     Looks in and sheds a blessing on the scene.     Scarce less the cleft-born wild-flower seems to enjoy     Existence, than the winged plunderer     That sucks its sweets. The massy rocks themselves,     And the old and ponderous trunks of prostrate trees     That lead from knoll to knoll a causey rude     Or bridge the sunken brook, and their dark roots,     With all their earth upon them, twisting high,     Breathe fixed tranquillity. The rivulet     Sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed     Of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks,     Seems, with continuous laughter, to rejoice     In its own being. Softly tread the marge,     Lest from her midway perch thou scare the wren     That dips her bill in water. The cool wind,     That stirs the stream in play, shall come to thee,     Like one that loves thee nor will let thee pass     Ungreeted, and shall give its light embrace.