Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

“ The stream that by green shoresides plashed and purled
Expands: the mountains melt to vapors rare,
And life alone circles out flat and bare.
IX
Yet wear we on, the deep light disallowed
That lit our youth; in years no longer young
We wander silently, and brood among
Dead graves, and tease the sunbreak and the cloud
For import: were it not better yet to fly,
To follow those that go before the throng,
Reasoning from stone to star, and easily
Exampling this existence? ”

“ III
39Dear to the child who hears thy rustling voice
40Cease at his footstep, though he hears thee still,
41Cease and resume, with vibrance crisp and shrill,
42Thou sittest in the sunshine to rejoice!;
43Night lover too; bringer of all things dark,
44And rest and silence; yet thou bringest to me
45Always that burthen of the unresting sea
46The moaning cliffs, the low rocks blackly stark;
47These upland inland fields no more I view,
48But the long flat seaside beach, the wild seamew,
49 And the overturning wave! ”

“ Why hold ye so my heart, nor dimly let
Through your deep leaves the light of yesterday,
The faded glimmer of a sunshine set?
Is it that in your darkness, shut from strife,
The bread of tears becomes the bread of life?
Far from the roar of day, beneath your boughs
Fresh griefs beat tranquilly, and loves and vows
Grow green in your gray shadows, dearer far
Even than all lovely lights and roses are? ”