commencement poem, written for the university of california, june, 1876.

"into the balm of the clover,
into the dawn and the dew,
come, o my poet, my lover,
single of spirit and true!

'sweeter the song of the throstle
shall ring from its nest in the vine,
and the lark, my beloved apostle,
shall chant thee a gospel divine.

'ah! not to the dullard, the schemer,
i of my fullness may give,
but thou, whom the world calleth dreamer,
drink of my fountains and live!'

o, and golden in the sun did the river waters run,
o, and golden in its shining all the mellow landscape lay;
and the poet's simple rhyme blended softly with the chime
of the bells that rang the noontide, in the city, far away.

and the gold and amethyst of the thin, transparent mist,
lifted, drifted from the ocean to the far horizon's rim,
where the white, transfigured ghost of some vessel, long since lost,
half in cloud and half in billow, trembled on its utmost brim.

and i said, 'most beautiful, in thy noontide dream and lull,
art thou, nature, sweetest mother, in thy summer raiment drest;
aye, in all thy moods and phases, lovingly i name thy praises,
yet through all my love and longing chafeth still the old unrest.'

'art thou a'worn and a-weary,
sick with the doubts that perplex,
came from thy ivisdom moat dreary,
leas fair than the faith which it wrecks?

'' not in the tomes of the sages
lieth the word to thy need;
truer my blossomy pages,
sweeter their lessons to read.'

'aye,' i said, 'but con it duly, who may read the lesson truly;
who may grasp the mighty meaning, hidden past our finding out?
from the weary search unsleeping, what is yielded to our keeping?
all our knowledge, peradventure; all our wisdom merely doubt!

'o my earth, to know thee fully! i that love thee, singly, wholly!
in thy beauty thou art' veiled; in thy melody art dumb.
once, unto my perfect seeing give this mystery of being;
once, thy silence breaking, tell me, whither go we? whence we come?'

and i heard the rustling leaves, and the sheaves against the sheaves
clashing lightly, clashing brightly, as they ripened in the sun;
and the gracious air astir with the insect hum and whirr,
and the merry plash and ripple where the river waters run:

heard the anthem of the sea—that most mighty melody —
only these; yet something deeper than to own my spirit willed.
like a holy calm descending, with my inmost being blending —
like the 'peace' to troubled waters, that are pacified and stilled.

and i said: 'ah, what are we? children at the master's knee—
little higher than these grasses glancing upward from the sods!
just the few first pages turning in his mighty book of learning—
we, mere atoms of beginning, that would wrestle with the gods!'

'in the least one of my daisies
deeper a meaning is set,
than the seers ye crown with your praises,
have wrung from the centuries yet.

'leave them their doubt and derision;
lo, to the knowledge i bring,
clingeth no dimness of vision!
come, o my chosen, my king!

'out from the clouds that cover,
the night that would blind and betray,
come, o my poet, my lover,
into the golden day!'

o, and deeper through the calm rolled the ceaseless ocean psalm;
o, and brighter in the sunshine all the meadows stretched away;
and a little lark sang clear from the willow branches near,
and the glory and the gladness closed about me where i lay.

and i said: 'aye, verily, waiteth yet the master key,
all these mysteries that shall open, though to surer hand than mine;
all these doubts of our discerning, to the peace of knowledge turning,
all our darkness, which is human, to the light, which is divine!'