For I too have forgotten,
(Wrapt in these little potencies of progress, politics, culture,
     wealth, inventions, civilization,)
Have lost my recognition of your silent ever-swaying power, ye
     mighty, elemental throes,
In which and upon which we float, and every one of us is
     buoy'd.

1889 1891-2

A PERSIAN LESSON

FOR his o'erarching and last lesson the greybeard sufi,
In the fresh scent of the morning in the open air,
On the slope of a teeming Persian rose-garden,
Under the ancient chestnut-tree wide spreading its branches,
Spoke to the young priests and students.

Finally my children, to envelop each word, each part of the
     rest,
Allah is all, all, all — is immanent in every life and object,

May-be at many and many-a-more removes — yet Allah,
     Allah, Allah is there.

"Has the estray wander'd far? Is the reason-why strangely
     hidden?
Would you sound below the restless ocean of the entire world?
Would you know the dissatisfaction? the urge and spur of
     every life;
The something never still'd — never entirely gone? the invisible
     need of every seed?

"It is the central urge in every atom,
(Often unconscious, often evil, downfallen,)
To return to its divine source and origin, however distant,
Latent the same in subject and in object, without one
     exception."

1891 1891-2

THE COMMONPLACE

THE commonplace I sing;
How cheap is health! how cheap nobility!
Abstinence, no falsehood, no gluttony, lust;
The open air I sing, freedom, toleration,
(Take here the mainest lesson — less from books — less from
     the schools,)
The common day and night — the common earth and waters,
Your farm — your work, trade, occupation,
The democratic wisdom underneath, like solid ground for all.

1891 1891-2

"THE ROUNDED CATALOGUE DIVINE COMPLETE"

(Sunday_ _ _. _ Went this forenoon to church. A college professor, Rev. Dr._, gave us a fine sermon, during which I caught the above words; but the minister included in his "rounded catalogue" letter and spirit, only the esthetic things, and entirely ignored what I name in the following:)

THE devilish and the dark, the dying and diseas'd,
The countless (nineteen-twentieths) low and evil, crude and
     savage,

The crazed, prisoners in jail, the horrible, rank,
     malignant,
Venom and filth, serpents, the ravenous sharks, liars, the
     dissolute;
(What is the part the wicked and the loathsome bear within
     earth's orbic scheme?)
Newts, crawling things in slime and mud, poisons,
The barren soil, the evil men, the slag and hideous rot.

1891
1891-2

MIRAGES

(Noted verbatim after a supper-talk out doors in Nevada with
             two old miners)

MORE experiences and sights, stranger, than you'd think
     for;
Times again, now mostly just after sunrise or before
     sunset,
Sometimes in spring, oftener in autumn, perfectly clear
     weather, in plain sight,
Camps far or near, the crowded streets of cities and the
     shop-fronts,
(Account for it or not — credit or not — it is all true,
And my mate there could tell you the like — we have often
     confab'd about it,)
People and scenes, animals, trees, colors and lines, plain as
     could be,
Farms and dooryards of home, paths border'd with box,
     lilacs in corners,
Weddings in churches, thanksgiving dinners, returns of long-
    absent sons,
Glum funerals, the crape-veil'd mother and the daughters,
Trials in courts, jury, and judge, the accused in the