SYMBOLS.
Reading edition
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BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.
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I looked all abroad for a symbol of thee,
And a thousand bright symbols replied,
They bloomed on the land, they shone on the sea —
There were flowers and stars that likened might be
To thy beautiful spirit, so nearly allied
To all that is brightest on land or on sea.
The brooks on the hills in their crystaline flow,
Singing out of their mystical springs,
The heralds of joy to the valleys below,
Making all things more lovely wherever they go,
Are the types of thy spirit, whose beautiful wings
Make gladness and music wherever they go.
The birds, the sybiline birds of the grove,
Entempled in shadowy bloom,
Or clothed in a luminous vesture above
Of sunshine and azure and music and love,
Are the types of thy soul, that in brightness or gloom
Is clothed in a luminous vesture of love.
All things are thy symbols—thou sheddest on all
The lustre and sweetness of Song,
Like the angels whose star-loving pinions let fall
A glory that holdeth true poets in thrall: —
To thee all things lovely as symbols belong.
And thou art the beautiful symbol of all.