Australian and Other Poems/Light in the Shade
LIGHT IN THE SHADE.
Even in the olden time, when books were rare,
And men from Nature chiefly had their lore,
The world, if wanting letters, lacked not store
Of sagest teachings for the student's share.
Who that e'er wanders thro' some bloom-floored shaw,
When length'ning shadows come across the scene—
Night's harbingers, that spread the sunny green
With eve's appropriate carpet—he may draw
A lesson from the woods. There where the shade
Falls deep, the glittering, gem-like host ascends
In brightest file, whiles, where the day-star bends
His latest rays, the beauteous clusters fade,
Think, then, when overhead life's storm-cloud lowers,
It is the shadow that calls forth the flowers,