The Woods

Cover me with your everlasting arms,-- Ye guardian giants of this solitude!-- From the ill-sight of men, and from the rude Tumultuous din of yon wild world's alarms! Oh, knit your mighty limbs around, above, And close me in for ever! let me dwell With the wood spirits, in the darkest spell That ever with your verdant locks ye wove. The air is full of countless voices, joined In one eternal hymn; the whispering wind, The shuddering leaves, the hidden water springs, The work-song of the bees, whose honeyed wings Hang in the golden tresses of the lime, Or buried lie in purple beds of thyme.