Poems (Proctor)/Lights and Shadows
For works with similar titles, see Lights and Shadows.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.
See how the shifting lights and shadows fall
Athwart the path where young leaves take the sun;
Blent in a wavering, tangled maze they run,
As blows the wind across the orchard wall,
So fleet, so faint, that careless play seems all,—
Yet perfect law imprints them, every one,
And tides might sooner seek the moon to shun
Than leaves this instant limning to forestall.
Thus do the lights and shadows of the soul
Unerringly portray its good and ill;
Each aim, each longing, fraught with joy or dole,
Traces an image on life's pathway still,
And the swift pictures are our judgment-scroll
Whether with shine or shade the hours we fill.
Athwart the path where young leaves take the sun;
Blent in a wavering, tangled maze they run,
As blows the wind across the orchard wall,
So fleet, so faint, that careless play seems all,—
Yet perfect law imprints them, every one,
And tides might sooner seek the moon to shun
Than leaves this instant limning to forestall.
Thus do the lights and shadows of the soul
Unerringly portray its good and ill;
Each aim, each longing, fraught with joy or dole,
Traces an image on life's pathway still,
And the swift pictures are our judgment-scroll
Whether with shine or shade the hours we fill.