Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/289

 THE ASS ABET BROOK AND RIVER 279

Downward, one long bright streak was seen,

Flashing 'twixt walls of living green.

Farewell, brave woods the walks that shaded 1

Since the rude axe your peace invaded ;

Farewell, sweet vale ! No more to brood

Recluse shall seek thy solitude.

The noisy highway ploughs thy breast ;

The lumbering cart-wheel breaks thy rest ;

And, in the solemn shades below

Where May beheld the unmelted snow,

Ten times a day, through hill and dale,

With fiery breath and clattering tail, A dragon black glides yelling through, Soiling with dust the morning dew. And, from a throat that reeks with steaim, At thy green gate sends forth his scream. Hideous to hear. O, never more Shall time thy loveliness restore !

Yet why should I such fate lament. Who, ere youth's dreamy days were spent, Learned to foresee in each to-morrow An equal chance for joy and sorrow. 'Tis sure small reason now for tears That thou art changed in twenty years.

When I have known one single night

Snatch from my arms life's best delight.

I, too, am changed, nor more despair

Because things are not what they were,

Since with each change, howe'er bereft,

I count unnumbered blessings left ;

And, prone to hope, I live at last

More in the future than the past.

Yet 'twould some pleasure yield, I deem,

Were I but master of life's stream,

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