479.
Life a River.
1
Mark the river, at its birth,
When it leaves the mountain's side;
See it, gently stealing forth,
Downward to the valley glide;
Gathering strength, as on it goes,
'Till a torrent wide it flows.
2
Now, impelled by mighty force,
On, it speeds, from thraldom free:
Nothing may resist its course,
Till it mingles with the sea:
Having raged its little day,
In that gulf it dies away.
3
Image of the birth of man!
View him now an infant mild,
Gifted with the narrowest span:
Who, contemplating the child,
Would suspect, as he beholds,
What that feeble casket holds.
4
Like a slender stream, at first,
See him, weak, yet onward glide!
Now impatient, view him burst
Up to man, in power and pride,
Oft by storm and tempest tost,
'Till in death's dark ocean lost!
5
Here the semblance faint must cease!
Man, though sunk to mortal eye,
Will emerge, and still increase,
Being of a nobler sky!
Life conducts us to the gate
Leading to an endless state.
6
Let us pass our sojourn here,
With an undiverted gaze
Fix'd upon that loftier sphere,
When, (expiring in a blaze,)
Earth shall vanish, time, and sin,
And Eternity begin!
