Birds, Insects, Man and Woman 1 13 



than any man besides the profound and serious 

 sweetness of the teachings of such an hour and 

 scene embodying all the infinite lesson of our 

 departure : 



&quot; Now, while I sat in the day and looked forth, 



In the close of the day with its light and the fields of 



spring, and the farmers preparing their crops, 

 In the large unconscious scenery of my land, with its 



lakes and forests, 

 In the heavenly aerial beauty, after the perturbed winds 



and storms, 



Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift pass 

 ing, and the voices of children and women, 

 The many moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how 



they sailed, 

 And the summer approaching with richness, and the 



fields all busy with labour, 

 And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, 



each with its meals and minutia of daily usages, 

 And the streets, how their throbbings throbbed, and the 



cities pent, lo, then and there, 

 Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping 



me with the rest, 



Appeared the cloud, appeared the long, black trail, 

 And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge 



of death. 



Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side 

 of me, 

 H 



