Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
II. Prayer and AspirationAscription
Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts (18601943)O T
The dark foundations of the land,—
The motion of whose ordered thought
An instant universe hath wrought,—
The rolling sun, the ripening seed,
The azure of the speedwell’s eye,
The vast solemnities of sky,—
Of one small bird’s awakening throat,
Than that unnamed, tremendous chord
Arcturus sounds before his Lord,—
Of storm and ocean, stars and flame,
In favor more before Thy face
Than pageantry of time and space,
Of him Thou madest most like Thee,—
Who in his nostrils hath Thy breath,
Whose spirit is the lord of death!