The Beauty Of Things

To feel and speak the astonishing beauty of things -

earth, stone and water,

Beast, man and woman, sun, moon and stars -

The blood-shot beauty of human nature, its thoughts,

frenzies and passions,

And unhuman nature its towering reality -

For man's half dream; man, you might say, is nature

dreaming, but rock

And water and sky are constant - to feel

Greatly, and understand greatly, and express greatly, the

natural

Beauty, is the sole business of poetry.

The rest's diversion: those holy or noble sentiments, the

intricate ideas,

The love, lust, longing: reasons, but not the reason.

ROBINSON JEFFERS