Life , glorious Spirit! walked by Eden's stream
Exultingly, and with a bounding tread;
Flowers grew beneath his footsteps, his breath shed
Vitality on air, his lucent eye
The sky and earth reflected in its gleam:
He threw his arm forth as alone he trod
In conscious power, and felt himself a god;
He gazed around, and, in the ecstasy
Of joy absorbed, exclaimed, ‘All this is mine!’

A deep Voice sighed behind, ‘Not wholly thine!’
He turned; within his shadow on the ground
Another walked, a Potentate that drew
Its life from him, and gave; beside a yew
He stood, and cast his solemn eyes around:
‘Thou hast said well, but we must share one throne;
Thou quicken'st, but canst not preserve the breath
Thou givest, frail and fleeting as thine own;
Thy birth and resurrection are from Death:
Thou could'st not be, gave I not thee the dust
Thou risest from, to which return thou must.
I aid the work thou canst not do alone;
Thou lend'st awhile the blossom and the hue,
The fair and fleeting; I, the roots renew.’