Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. The Divine Element—(God, Christ, the Holy Spirit)

“God is everywhere”

Robert Nicoll (1814–1837)

A TRODDEN daisy, from the sward,

With tearful eye I took,

And on its ruined glories I,

With moving heart, did look;

For, crushed and broken though it was,

That little flower was fair;

And oh! I loved the dying bud,

For God was there!

I stood upon the sea-beat shore,

The waves came rushing on;

The tempest raged in giant wrath,

The light of day was gone.

The sailor from his drowning bark

Sent up his dying prayer;

I looked amid the ruthless storm,

And God was there!

I sought a lonely, woody dell,

Where all things soft and sweet,

Birds, flowers, and trees, and running streams,

Mid bright sunshine did meet:

I stood beneath an old oak’s shade,

And summer round was fair;

I gazed upon the peaceful scene,

And God was there!

I saw a home—a happy home—

Upon a bridal day,

And youthful hearts were blithesome there,

And aged hearts were gay:

I sat amid the smiling band

Where all so blissful were—

Among the bridal maidens sweet—

And God was there!

I stood beside an infant’s couch,

When light had left its eye—

I saw the mother’s bitter tears,

I heard her woful cry—

I saw her kiss its fair pale face,

And smooth its yellow hair;

And oh, I loved the mourner’s home,

For God was there!

I sought a cheerless wilderness—

A desert, pathless wild—

Where verdure grew not by the streams,

Where beauty never smiled;

Where desolation brooded o’er

A muirland lone and bare,

And awe upon my spirit crept,

For God was there!

I looked upon the lowly flower,

And on each blade of grass;

Upon the forests, wide and deep,

I saw the tempests pass:

I gazed on all created things

In earth, in sea, and air;

Then bent the knee—for God, in love,

Was everywhere!