| |
| WITH one bold spring, the little streamlet sinks | |
| Prostrate below, and slumbers still and pure, | |
| Holding its silver mirror to the sun | |
| And open sky. It rushes from its height, | |
| Like some bold warrior to the gladdening fray; | 5 |
| Then rests like that same warrior in repose, | |
| Smiling at victory won. When summer noon | |
| Makes earth and air all drowsy with its heat, | |
| Delicious is the rumble of the plunge | |
| Sounding its grateful coolness to the ear, | 10 |
| And blending sweetly with the sighing tones | |
| Born where the pine uplifts its dark blue spire, | |
| And with the humming, like a giant bee, | |
| The tall slim mill yields ever through the day. | |
| Noon’s columned beams bring likewise out the hues | 15 |
| That shift and quiver upon the headlong sheet; | |
| The emerald and the sapphire of its curve, | |
| The diamond tremble of its glancing drops, | |
| And all the tints that glitter in the threads— | |
| Divided sunshine—of the opal bow | 20 |
| Gleaming and dancing in the snowy foam | |
| Born at its tumbling foot. The afternoon | |
| Steeps it in pleasant shadow, with a ring | |
| Of radiance on the cedar’s slender tip | |
| And mill’s sharp roof, and moonlight makes the pitch | 25 |
| One slope of silver. A delicious spot! | |
| And lovers wander here in summer hours, | |
| To gaze upon the scene, and, in the soft | |
| And glowing day-dreams given by Hope and Love, | |
| Muse on the things that meet their mingled sight. | 30 |
| In the swift plunging stream the youth beholds | |
| The course of man,—his energy of will, | |
| His rush of action, turbulence of soul; | |
| While sees the maiden in the pool below | |
| The life of woman,—gentle, sweet, and bright, | 35 |
| Receiving to her bosom reckless man, | |
| Yet glassing in her crystal purity | |
| The stars and sunshine of the heaven above her. | |
| |
