English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 694. The Stream of Life |
| | | Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) |
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| O STREAM descending to the sea, | |
| Thy mossy banks between, | |
| The flowerets blow, the grasses grow, | |
| The leafy trees are green. | |
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| In garden plots the children play, | 5 |
| The fields the labourers till, | |
| And houses stand on either hand, | |
| And thou descendest still. | |
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| O life descending into death, | |
| Our walking eyes behold, | 10 |
| Parent and friend thy lapse attend, | |
| Companions young and old. | |
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| Strong purposes our minds possess, | |
| Our hearts affections fill, | |
| We toil and earn, we seek and learn, | 15 |
| And thou descendest still. | |
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| O end to which our currents tend, | |
| Inevitable sea, | |
| To which we flow, what do we know, | |
| What shall we guess of thee? | 20 |
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| A roar we hear upon thy shore, | |
| As we our course fulfil; | |
| Scarce we divine a sun will shine | |
| And be above us still. | |
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