To Outer Nature

Show thee as I thought thee
When I early sought thee,
&nbsp Omen-scouting,
&nbsp All undoubting
Love alone had wrought thee -
Wrought thee for my pleasure,
Planned thee as a measure
&nbsp For expounding
&nbsp And resounding
Glad things that men treasure.

O for but a moment
Of that old endowment -
&nbsp Light to gaily
&nbsp See thy daily
Irised embowment!

But such re-adorning
Time forbids with scorning -
&nbsp Makes me see things
&nbsp Cease to be things
They were in my morning.

Fad'st thou, glow-forsaken,
Darkness-overtaken!
&nbsp Thy first sweetness,
&nbsp Radiance, meetness,
None shall re-awaken.

Why not sempiternal
Thou and I? Our vernal
&nbsp Brightness keeping,
&nbsp Time outleaping;
Passed the hodiernal!