Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IV. The Higher Life. 1904. | | | | VI. Human Experience | | Small Beginnings | | Charles Mackay (1814–1889) |
| | | A TRAVELLER through a dusty road strewed acorns on the lea; | |
| And one took root and sprouted up, and grew into a tree. | |
| Love sought its shade, at evening time, to breath its early vows; | |
| And age was pleased, in heats of noon, to bask beneath its boughs; | |
| The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, the birds sweet music bore; | 5 |
| It stood a glory in its place, a blessing evermore. | |
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| A little spring had lost its way amid the grass and fern, | |
| A passing stranger scooped a well, where weary men might turn; | |
| He walled it in, and hung with care a ladle at the brink; | |
| He thought not of the deed he did, but judged that toil might drink. | 10 |
| He passed again, and lo! the well, by summers never dried, | |
| Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues, and saved a life besides. | |
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| A dreamer dropped a random thought; ’t was old, and yet ’t was new; | |
| A simple fancy of the brain, but strong in being true. | |
| It shone upon a genial mind, and lo! its light became | 15 |
| A lamp of life, a beacon ray, a monitory flame. | |
| The thought was small; its issue great; a watch-fire on the hill, | |
| It shed its radiance far adown, and cheers the valley still! | |
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| A nameless man, amid the crowd that thronged the daily mart, | |
| Let fall a word of Hope and Love, unstudied, from the heart; | 20 |
| A whisper on the tumult thrown,—a transitory breath,— | |
| It raised a brother from the dust; it saved a soul from death. | |
| O germ! O fount! O word of love! O thought at random cast! | |
| Ye were but little at the first, but mighty at the last. | | | | |
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