I'M hastening from the distant hills With swift and noisy flowing; Nursed by a thousand tiny rills, I'm ever onward going. The willows cannot stay my course, With all their pliant wooing; I sing and sing till I am hoarse, My prattling way pursuing. I kiss the pebbles as I pass, And hear them say they love me, I make obeisance to the grass That kindly bends above me. So onward through the meads and dells I hasten, never knowing The secret motive that impels, Or whither I am going. A little child comes often here To watch my quaint commotion As I go tumbling swift and clear Down to the distant ocean; And as he plays upon my brink, So thoughtless like and merry And full of noisy song, I think The child is like me, very. Through all the years of youthful play, With ne'er a thought of sorrow, We, prattling, speed upon our way, Unmindful of the morrow; Aye, through these sunny meads and dells We gambol, never trowing The solemn motive that impels, Or whither we are going. And men come here to say to me: "Like you, with weird commotion, O little singing brooklet, we Are hastening to the ocean; Down to a vast and misty deep, With fleeting tears and laughter We go, nor rest until we sleep In that profound Hereafter. What tides may bear our souls along, What monsters rise appalling, What distant shores may hear our song And answer to our calling? Ah, who can say! Through meads and dells We wander, never knowing The awful motive that impels, Or whither we are going!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN THE VALLEY OF THE ELWY by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS AS THE NEW YEAR [18 B.C.] DAWNED by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, ESQ., ON SEEING HIS PICTURE ... by MATTHEW ARNOLD PSALM 3. DOMINE QUID MULTIPLICATI by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE DISCIPLE by DWIGHT JAQUES BRADLEY SONNET TO THE SEA SERPENT by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |