Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/25

 One, on more distant perch, more clear
 * But fainter, brags him still;

But ah! he promises, I fear,
 * More than his master's household will fulfil.

The sound invades each silent wood,
 * Awakes each slumbering bird,

Till every fowl leads forth her brood,
 * Which in her nest the tuneful summons heard.

Methinks that Time has reached his prime;
 * Eternity is in the flower;

And this the faint, confused chime
 * That ushers in the sacred hour.

And has Time got so forward then?
 * From what perennial fount of joy

Dost thou inspire the hearts of men,
 * And teach them how the daylight to employ?

From thy abundance pray impart,
 * Who dost so freely spill,

Some bravery unto my heart,
 * And let me taste of thy perennial rill.

There is such health and length of years
 * In the elixir of thy note,

That God himself more young appears
 * From the rare bragging of thy throat.

These rough and daring verses have less value as poems than as quaint expressions of Thoreau's delicate perceptions. In the same [xvii]