Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/To the Sun
To the Sun.
Emblem of Him that made thee, source of light,
Heat, vegetation, beauty, and defence!
Let not the unbelieving sons of night
Scoff at our notion that Omnipotence
Cares for the meanest worm that crawls the earth.
Even as the aureate tide thou pourest forth
On all sides equally at every point,
Flooding creation with thy boundless beams.
And yet with thine own image dost anoint
Each individual daisy's head; so teems
Full on the universe through all its round
The radiant power of the Divinity;
But still with special aim is resting found
Upon the lowliest of the lowly—me.
Heat, vegetation, beauty, and defence!
Let not the unbelieving sons of night
Scoff at our notion that Omnipotence
Cares for the meanest worm that crawls the earth.
Even as the aureate tide thou pourest forth
On all sides equally at every point,
Flooding creation with thy boundless beams.
And yet with thine own image dost anoint
Each individual daisy's head; so teems
Full on the universe through all its round
The radiant power of the Divinity;
But still with special aim is resting found
Upon the lowliest of the lowly—me.