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| SPIRIT that breathest through my lattice, thou | |
| That cool’st the twilight of the sultry day, | |
| Gratefully flows thy freshness round my brow; | |
| Thou hast been out upon the deep at play, | |
| Riding all day the wild blue waves till now, | 5 |
| Roughening their crests, and scattering high their spray, | |
| And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee | |
| To the scorched land, thou wanderer of the sea! | |
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| Nor I alone; a thousand bosoms round | |
| Inhale thee in the fulness of delight; | 10 |
| And languid forms rise up, and pulses bound | |
| Livelier, at coming of the wind of night; | |
| And, languishing to hear thy grateful sound, | |
| Lies the vast inland stretched beyond the sight. | |
| Go forth into the gathering shade; go forth, | 15 |
| God’s blessing breathed upon the fainting earth! | |
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| Go, rock the little wood-bird in his nest, | |
| Curl the still waters, bright with stars, and rouse | |
| The wide old wood from his majestic rest, | |
| Summoning from the innumerable boughs | 20 |
| The strange, deep harmonies that haunt his breast; | |
| Pleasant shall be thy way where meekly bows | |
| The shutting flower, and darkling waters pass, | |
| And where the o’ershadowing branches sweep the grass. | |
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| The faint old man shall lean his silver head | 25 |
| To feel thee; thou shalt kiss the child asleep, | |
| And dry the moistened curls that over-spread | |
| His temples, while his breathing grows more deep; | |
| And they who stand about the sick man’s bed | |
| Shall joy to listen to thy distant sweep, | 30 |
| And softly part his curtains to allow | |
| Thy visit, grateful to his burning brow. | |
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| Go—but the circle of eternal change, | |
| Which is the life of Nature, shall re-store, | |
| With sounds and scents from all thy mighty range, | 35 |
| Thee to thy birthplace of the deep once more; | |
| Sweet odors in the sea-air, sweet and strange, | |
| Shall tell the home-sick mariner of the shore; | |
| And, listening to thy murmur, he shall deem | |
| He hears the rustling leaf and running stream. | 40 |
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