1 Life is too grim with anxious, eating care br 2 To cherish what is best. Our souls are scarred br 3 By daily agonies, and our conscience marred br 4 By petty tyrannies that waste and wear. br 5 Why is this human fate so hard to bear? br 6 Could we but live with hill-lakes silver-starred, br 7 Or where the eternal silence leaneth toward br 8 The awful front of nature, waste and bare: br br 9 Then might we, brothers to the lofty thought br 10 And inward self-communion of her dream, br 11 Into that closer kin with love be brought, br 12 Where mighty hills and woods and waters, wan, br 13 Moon-paved at midnight or godlike at dawn, br 14 Hold all earth's aspirations in their gleam.