Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/345

 THE sours I X VOCATION

Earth's wisest sage a weakling seems to such — One who knows nought because he knows so much.

O just man, whom thy countrymen name father !

No common type can I behold in thee ; Like some colossal statue art thou, rather,

Standing alone in simple majesty, So well proportioned that the common eye In thee could but a common man descry, Save that to reach thee it must look so high.

��THE SOUL'S INVOCATION.

A GLANCE DOWN THE RIVER OF LIFE INTO THE OCEAN BEYOND.

Master unknown, whose power divine Framed from the dust this form of mine, And on Life's river spread my sail. Where, swiftly driven before the gale. My keel glides on ! I feel thy breath Impel me toward the straits of death. Beyond whose narrow pass my soul Beholds the billowy ages roll. But sees no end ; there Fancy's eye Through the dim distance can descry Only dense vapors, wastes profound, A world of waters, and no bound. Fate flies before, and I behind ; Her wings, outstretched upon the wind, O'ercloud the skies, and, rushing fast. Each landmark sweeps into the past. Upon the river's banks each day Life's ever-changing flowers decay ;

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