Poems (Procter)/Discouraged

by Adelaide Anne Procter

DISCOURAGED.

HERE the little babbling streamlet First springs forth to light,Trickling through soft velvet mosses, Almost hid from sight; Vowed I with delight,— "River, I will follow thee,Through thy wanderings to the Sea!"

Gleaming 'mid the purple heather, Downward then it sped,Glancing through the mountain gorges, Like a silver thread, As it quicker fled,Louder music in its flow,Dashing to the vale below.

Then its voice grew lower, gentler, And its pace less fleet,Just as though it loved to linger Round the rushes' feet, As they stooped to meetTheir clear images below,Broken by the ripples' flow.

Purple Willow-herb bent over To her shadow fair;Meadow-sweet, in feathery clusters, Perfumed all the air; Silver-weed was there,And in one calm, grassy spot,Starry, blue Forget-me-not.

Tangled weeds, below the waters, Still seemed drawn away;Yet the current, floating onward, Was less strong than they;— Sunbeams watched their play,With a flickering light and shade,Through the screen the Alders made.

Broader grew the flowing River To its grassy brink;Slowly, in the slanting sun-rays, Cattle trooped to drink; The blue sky, I think,Was no bluer than that stream,Slipping onward, like a dream.

Quicker, deeper then it hurried, Rushing fierce and free;But I said, "It should grow calmer Ere it meets the Sea, The wide purple Sea,Which I weary for in vain,Wasting all my toil and pain."

But it rushed still quicker, fiercer, In its rocky bed,Hard and stony was the pathway To my tired tread; "I despair," I said,"Of that wide and glorious SeaThat was promised unto me."

So I turned aside, and wandered Through green meadows near,Far away, among the daisies, Far away, for fear Lest I still should hearThe loud murmur of its song,As the River flowed along.

Now I hear it not;—I loiter Gayly as before; Yet I sometimes think,—and thinking Makes my heart so sore,— Just a few steps more,And there might have shone for me,Blue and infinite, the Sea.