Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/112

106 PLANTED BY THE RIVER.

UMAN eyes never saw it, That seed as it fell, Till the tears of a mourner Had watered it well.

No plume lifted upward Its fair presence told; No blossom-touch parted The sombre-hued mould.

Out of sight, not forgotten As seasons went by, It waited its quick'ning, And call from the sky,--

As safe as God's treasure, As sure as His word, Till the touch of His finger The soul softly stirred.

And then, in sweet silence, It blossomed its way Out of grasses entangled To sunlighted day.

What bloom-life, you ask me, Was hidden so long, Yet kept unforgotten, Its purposes strong?