Ah, whispering, something again, unseen,

Where late this heated day thou enterest at my window, door,

Thou, laving, tempering all, cool-freshing, gently vitalizing

Me, old, alone, sick, weak-down, melted-worn with sweat;

Thou, nestling, folding close and firm yet soft, companion better

than talk, book, art,

(Thou hast, O Nature! elements! utterance to my heart beyond the

rest--and this is of them,)

So sweet thy primitive taste to breathe within--thy soothing fingers

my face and hands,

Thou, messenger--magical strange bringer to body and spirit of me,

(Distances balk'd--occult medicines penetrating me from head to foot,)

I feel the sky, the prairies vast--I feel the mighty northern lakes,

I feel the ocean and the forest--somehow I feel the globe itself

swift-swimming in space;

Thou blown from lips so loved, now gone--haply from endless store,

God-sent,

(For thou art spiritual, Godly, most of all known to my sense,)

Minister to speak to me, here and now, what word has never told, and

cannot tell,

Art thou not universal concrete's distillation? Law's, all

Astronomy's last refinement?

Hast thou no soul? Can I not know, identify thee?