Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/372

 362 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

" At last the busy hand of man

Would stay my course or fix my bound ;

Swift would I break the obstructing dam, And scatter desolation round.

��"The ruined village there behold,

The tottering spire, the uprooted tree ;

The shepherd vainly seeks his fold ; The husbandman no crop shall see.

" Long since grown tame, my noiseless ware

Disdains to scatter waste and woe. I seek not to destroy, but save,

Dispensing blessings as I go.

" For I, with life, have gathered strength,

And strength should scorn the weak to oppress ;

My foes all vanquished now, at length I seek to fertilize and bless.

" No longer violent and wild,

My course is straight, and calm, and still ; The man hath put away the child ;

I carve the valley at my will.

" Within my bosom deep and wide, My power protects each entering rill ;

Its work I teach, each movement guide. That all their duty may fulfil.

" Swift o'er my breast the steamer glides ;

Joyous the snowy sail expands ; I bear the ship to ocean's tides.

And urge her on to distant lands.

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