Sonnet

Imitated from the Italian of Gaetana Passerini

IF in the field I meet a smiling flower,
Methinks it whispers, “God created me,
And I to Him devote my little hour,
In lonely sweetness and humility.”
If, where the forest’s darkest shadows lower,
A serpent quick and venomous I see,
It seems to say,–I too, extol the power
Of Him, who caused me, at his will, to be.”

The fountain purling, and the river strong,
The rocks, the trees, the mountains raise one song,
“Glory to God!” re-echoes in mine ear:
Faithless were I, in willful error blind,
Did I not find Him in all his creatures find,
His voice through heaven, and earth, and oceans hear.

By James Montgomery