I heard the voice of nature call,
Amid the woods and glen so fair;
And in the quiet of the fall
I felt her presence everywhere.
The birds sang softly overhead,
The flowers nodded, the brook flowed free;
I pondered on the paths we tread,
And all that human hearts might be.
Yet in this scene of pure delight,
I saw the shadow of our kind;
And felt how, in our mortal plight,
The soul may struggle, though confined.