386 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE
" But thou wouldst scorn to mate with sorrow ;
Peaceful thou journeyest on thy way ; No thought thou takest for the morrow,
Flowing unruffled day by day.
" Would that life's river, smooth as thine. Might waft me to some tranquil scene
Where the sweet light of hope might shine. As yon sun in thy floods serene !
" While each mute thing forgets its troubles, Thought's favored child his watch must keep,
His joys as transient all as bubbles.
Sole of all creatures doomed to weep." 37
Just twenty years ! And now at last
Time's hand the load of life hath lightened,
And memory, smiling o'er the past.
Hath all the backward landscape brightened.
And now thine ancient guest once more Hath come to view thy waters wild ;
A child he roamed thy banks of yore, And he returns to thee a child.
Still frank, still fond, as in those years When first thy flowery marge he ranged,
He brings thee all again but tears ; Passion is dead, but love unchanged.
Fair as thou wast he finds thee still, The fields, the flowers as fresh as ever;
The same dark pines tower up yon hill ; Thou art the same pure, placid river.
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