Page:Poems Clark.djvu/15

And we saw not at first, that between us
 A tiny streamlet sped,
Bearing out to the land before us
 A gift from the fountain head,—
For rushes and fragrant blossoms
 Quite shadowed its lowly bed.

And the days grew many and many,
 For the way was very long,
But the flowers still decked our bosoms,
 And love seemed pure and strong,
And the ripple and purl of the waters
 Was only to us as a song.

Yet still as at first, our clasping
 Of hands led us side by side,
But the stream unperceived grew wider,
 And sped with a swifter tide,
While even then in our blindness
 We watched the clear waves glide,

And said, that one or the other
 Would cross the brook ere long,
Before the shores receded,
 Or the waves grew fierce and strong;
This streamlet was naught to hearts like ours,
 Who deemed all doubt as wrong.

At last, a-weary with reaching
 For a hand-clasp over the tide,
We walked for the first time lonely,
 And laughed, as in merry pride
We questioned which should be yielding,
 And cross to the opposite side.

But swifter the rivulet glided,
 And the shores grew rough and steep;
The waves had a song no longer,

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