Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
To My Brooklet
By Jean-François Ducis (17331816)T
Hid in the covert of the wood!
Ah, yes, like thee I fear the throng,
Like thee I love the solitude.
Lie all forgotten in their graves,
Till in my thoughts remain at last
Only thy peace, thy flowers, thy waves.
The nightingale, the marguerite;
In shadow here he meditates
His nest, his love, his music sweet.
Knows naught of error or of crime;
Thy waters, murmuring as they roll,
Transform his musings into rhyme.
Pursuing still thy course, shall I
List the soft shudder of the leaves,
And hear the lapwing’s plaintive cry?
My humble brooklet, by thy flight,
Since life, alas! so soon is gone,
Often remind thine eremite
How swift the stream of Time flows on.