Explore "God of the Open Air (of the Unfailing Light)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I. Thou who hast made thy dwelling fair / With flowers below, above with starry lights / And set thine altars everywhere, -- / On mountain heights, / In woodlands dim with many a dream, / In valleys bright with springs, / And on the curving capes of every stream: / Thou who hast taken to thyself the wings / Of morning, to abide / Upon the secret places of the sea, / And on far islands, where the tide / Visits the beauty of untrodden shores, / Waiting for worshippers to come to thee / In thy great out-of-doors! / To thee I turn, to thee I make my prayer, / God of the open air.
II. Seeking for thee, the heart of man / Lonely and longing ran, / In that first, solitary hour, / When the mysterious power / To know and love the wonder of the morn / Was breathed within him, and his soul was born; / And thou didst meet thy child, / Not in some hidden shrine, / But in the freedom of the garden wild, / And take his hand in thine, -- / There all day long in Paradise he walked, / And in the cool of evening with thee talked.