Pebbles and Shells (Hawkes collection)/The Stream of Life
THE STREAM OF LIFE
I stood at morn upon the crowded street
Where men of every clime and country throng,
Where rich and poor and high and lowly meet,
And mingle in the tide that sweeps along,
And sought to read upon that troubled sea
Where righteousness went side by side with wrong,
The hopes and fears of all humanity,
And this became the burden of my song.
Oh! darkly rushing stream, one moment stay,
And let me linger on life's sunny shore,
And dip more deeply into human lore,
And learn to love and trust and truly weigh
The things of life ere it shall be no more—
But still the stream swept onward as before.
Where men of every clime and country throng,
Where rich and poor and high and lowly meet,
And mingle in the tide that sweeps along,
And sought to read upon that troubled sea
Where righteousness went side by side with wrong,
The hopes and fears of all humanity,
And this became the burden of my song.
Oh! darkly rushing stream, one moment stay,
And let me linger on life's sunny shore,
And dip more deeply into human lore,
And learn to love and trust and truly weigh
The things of life ere it shall be no more—
But still the stream swept onward as before.