James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

I ASK not for those thoughts, that sudden leap

From being’s sea, like the isle-seeming kraken,

With whose great rise the ocean all is shaken,

And a heart-tremble quivers through the deep;

Give me that growth, which some perchance deem sleep,

Wherewith the steadfast coral-stems uprise,

Which, by the toil of gathering energies,

Their upward way into clear sunshine keep,

Until, by Heaven’s sweetest influences,

Slowly and slowly spreads a speck of green

Into a pleasant island in the seas,

Where, ’mid tall palms, the cane-roofed home is seen,

And wearied men shall sit at sunset’s hour,

Hearing the leaves, and loving God’s dear power.