Songs and Sonnets (Coleman)/Among the Pines
AMONG THE PINES.
Like Druid priests, dark-vestured, slim,
Burdened with mysteries,
They wake throughout their green aisles dim
Weird melodies.
Rhythmic within their swaying limbs
The prisoned music swells,
Far cadence of cathedral hymns
And calling bells.
The infinite loneliness of night,
Bereft of joy or pain,
And passion of long-lost delight
Ebb in the strain.
The wash of low, monotonous waves
On shores unvisited,
The grasses whispering on graves
Where hearts have bled,
The travail of a world that lies
Below our mortal sense
Within their plaintive wandering sighs
Finds utterance.
The dreaming and unconscious things
Imprisoned in the clod
Voice through them when the night-wind sings
Their thought of God.