Primavera | Page 7

leaves;?Else wherefore this deep strife,?This pain, our soul conceives??The fall of ev'n such short-lived things?To us some sorrow brings.
And yet, plant, bird, and fly?Feel no such hidden fire.?Happy they live; and die?Happy, with no desire.?They in their brief life have fulfill'd?All Nature in them will'd.
And were we also made?Of like terrestrial mould?We should not be afraid,?Nor feel the grave so cold;?But, all oblivious of our fate,?Live sweetly out our date.
For the great mother loves?Her children far too well;?These longings that she moves?Their own fulfilment tell:?She would not burden us with aught?We really needed not.
O, not in vain she gave?To the wild birds their wings!?They spread them forth, and have?Heaven for their wanderings.?But we, to whom no wings are given?Why seek we for a Heaven?
And, when far o'er us fly?Those voyagers of the air,?Why must we gaze, and sigh,?_O would that I were there?_?Why are we restless, ill content,?Tied to one element?
'Tis not that in our tears?Some happier life we crave;?Our happiest, sweetest years?Mysterious moments have:?The sense of our brief human lot?Clings to us, haunts our thought.
O then this pleasant earth?Seems but an alien thing:?Faint grows her busy mirth;?Far hence our thoughts take wing:?For some enduring home we cry!?She cannot satisfy,
Or bind us: only ties?Immortal found can bless;?Only in loving eyes?We see our happiness;?Only upon a loving breast?Our souls find any rest.
Why thirsts the spirit so?For life? what moves it thus??'Tis _her_ voice; yes, I know,?'Tis Nature cries in us:?'Tis no unholy strife of ours?Against forbidding powers.
What though we gaze with fear,?So blank death seems to be;?What though no land appear?Beyond that lonely sea;?Still in our hearts her cry doth stay;?She will find out a way.
So in the chrysalis?Slumber those lovely wings;?So from the shell it is?The dazzling pearl she brings:?Her glorious works she works alone,?Unfathom'd and unknown!
MANMOHAN GHOSE.
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