Summons

I FEEL it call me as no human voices
Have ever done: — the music deep and strong,
Born of the forest when the wind rejoices
With tumult of forgotten, ancient song.

Naught draws me like the smell of the marsh places
In the hot noontide, in the quivering noon,
When sunlight overflows the blue air spaces,
And motion fails into a magic swoon.

My spirit sweeps aloft with the great mountains
And finds in mighty storms a mystic calm.
I know the song sung by the hidden fountains,
I long for the deep valley’s scented balm.

Deserts grown gray beneath the sun’s long shining,
Creating loneliness from morn to morn.
Forgotten paths through dim, lush meadows twining;
Shores where the Sea forever moves forlorn.

Earth voices, sun and moon and shadow, calling;
Growth of the Spring and Summer’s dreaming peace ;
Tempest and evening hush and soft snow falling —
Immortal voices! never will ye cease

To lead me by strange ways, half-comprehending —
Oh, half-rememb’ring what I do not know!
Beyond all Life and Beauty that hath ending
Unto that Mystery, whence yourselves ye flow.