THE FOUNTAIN. INTO the sunshine, Full of the light, Leaping and flashing From morn till night! Into the moonlight, Whiter than snow, Waving so flower-like When the winds blow! Into the starlight Rushing in spray, Happy at midnight, Happy by day! Ever in motion, Blithesome and cheery, Still climbing heavenward, Never aweary; Glad of all weathers, Still seeming best, Upward or downward, Motion thy rest; Full of a nature Nothing can tame, Changed every moment, Ceaseless aspiring, Ceaseless content, Darkness or sunshine Thy element ; A DIRGE. POET! lonely is thy bed, And the turf is overhead, Cold earth is thy cover; 'Neath the rustle of green trees, And the warm hum of the bees Mid the drowsy clover; Through thy chamber still as death A smooth gurgle wandereth, As the blue stream murmureth To the blue sky over. Where thy stainless clay doth lie And the white clouds wander by, Dreams of summer, silently Darkening the river; Thou hearest the clear water run, And the ripples, every one Scattering the golden sun, Through thy silence quiver. Thou wast full of love and truth, Of forgivingness and ruth, Thy great heart with hope and youth Tided to o'erflowing; Thou didst dwell in mysteries, And there lingered on thine eyes Shadows of serener skies, Awfully wild memories That were like foreknowing; Thou didst remember well and long Some fragments of thine angel-song, And strive, through want, and woe, and wrong, To win the world unto it; |