Wonderful World / William Brighty Rands

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World!
With the wonderful water round you curl’d,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast —
World, you are beautifully drest.

The wonderful air is over me,     
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree;
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the tops of the hills.

You friendly Earth! how far do you go,
With the wheatfields that nod, and the rivers that flow,     
With cities and gardens and cliffs and isles,
And people upon you for thousands of miles?

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I tremble to think of you, World, at all!
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,     
A whisper inside me seem’d to say —

‘You are more than the Earth, tho’ you are such a dot:
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!’

~~

William Brighty Rands (1823-1882)

from Good Words for the Young, December 1868

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

"Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World" read by Jean Aked. Courtesy jeanakedpoetry.

William Brighty Rands biography

World-Strangeness / William Watson

World-Strangeness

Strange the world about me lies,
     Never yet familiar grown —
Still disturbs me with surprise,
     Haunts me like a face half known.

In this house with starry dome,
     Floored with gemlike plains and seas,
Shall I never feel at home,
     Never wholly be at ease?

On from room to room I stray,
     Yet my Host can ne'er espy,
And I know not to this day
     Whether guest or captive I.

So, between the starry dome
     And the floor of plains and seas,
I have never felt at home,
     Never wholly been at ease.

~~
William Watson (1858-1935)
from Poems, 1893

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

William Watson biography

"World-Srangeness" composed by Ivor Gurney, sung by Marcus Farnsworth.