Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/395

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

THE KIVEK REVISITED 385

Yet, while thou soar'st in heaven afar,

Thy brethren thou must ne'er forget, But backward to thy native star

Must look with fond affection yet. Be this the climax of thine art — To teach the mind, yet touch the heart.

��For all delights of soul or sense,

All good that wealth or power commands. All forms of glorious excellence.

Moulded by thought or made with hands. On earth beneath, in heaven above, — All are as nothing without love.

��THE RIVER REVISITED.

OR, life's EXPERIEN'CE.

The clouds have capped the mountain's brow, The stream runs darkly clear below ;

So rested they, so flowedst thou. Sweet river, twenty years ago,

When, standing on thy flowery bank, Ere I had learned life's storms to brave,

Grief's gushing floods thy current drank, And salt tears mingled with thy wave.

" O, stream that hast my tears," I sighed, " And hasten est with them to the sea !

Would that thy depths might sorrow hide, And all life's cares be drowned in thee !

�� �