Page:Poems Douglas.djvu/187

The Stream of Life.

Life's infant stream, how calm and fair,
 And beautiful it lies,
It's silv'ry surf reflecting clear
 Young morning's cloudless skies!
How smooth our little barque glides on
 Upon the sunny stream—
How everything we gaze upon
 Looks bright as poet's dream.

Unruffled by one breeze of care
 The waters onward glide,
Unbittered by one woe-fraught tear
 Flows on the lucid tide
Or if a tear should chance to fall
 In childish sorrowing,
'Tis lighter than the dewy pearl
 Shook from the skylark's wing.

And oh! what sweet and gladsome bowers
 The sunny banks adorn—
We reach and pluck the fadeless flowers
 That bloom without a thorn;