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96

“TELLE EST LA VIE.”

See'st thou yon bark?—it left our bay
This morn on its adventurous way,
All glad and gaily bright;
And many a gale its impulse gave,
And many a gently heaving wave
Nigh bore it out of sight.
But soon that glorious course was lost,
And treach'rous was the deep;
Ne'er thought they there was peril most
When tempests seem'd asleep.
Telle est la Vie!
That flower, that fairest flower, that grew,
Aye cherish'd by the evening dew,
And cheer'd by opening day;
That flower which I had spared to cull
Because it was so beautiful,
And shone so fresh and gay;
97

Had all unseen a deathly shoot,
The germ of future sorrow;
And there was canker at its root
That nipp'd it ere the morrow.
Telle est la Vie!
I've watch'd from yonder mountain's height
The waxing and the waning light,
The world far, far below;
I've heard the thunder long and loud;
I've seen the sunshine and the cloud,
The tempest and the bow:
Now, 'twas all sunshine glad and bright,
And now the storm was raging;
Methought I read in that frail light
And storm a warfare waging,
Telle est la Vie!
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