Page:Poems Cook.djvu/397

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE DREAMER.
  "Where's the profit in mounting
  The copse-hill, and counting
The stars and the glow-worms that glimmer around?
  Why, why dost thou wander
  Where brooklets meander,
And listen as though there were speech in the sound?

  "What lore are you gleaning
  While silently leaning
O'er Spring's simple snowdrop and Autumn's dry leaf?
  Why waste your strong powers
  'Mid green hills and flowers,
When wealth is so mighty and life is so brief?

  Up, man, and be doing:
  No longer be wooing
The smiles of the moonlight and song of the bird.
  Muse no more on the motion
  Of cloud-scud and ocean;
But mix where the hum of the Active is heard.

  "Is it fair he should fatten,
  And revel and batten,
Who 'draweth no water' and 'heweth no wood!"
  Shame, shame, to thee, Dreamer!
  Thou bubble-blown schemer,
Thy presence among us here cannot be good!"

******

  The Dreamer replied not;
  He smiled not, he sigh'd not;

381