Life is only bright when it proceedeth Towards a truer, deeper life above; Couldst thou withdraw thy hand one Human love is sweetest when it lead We've not proud nor soaring wings; With the blue above, and the blue Touch us gently, Time! Our ambition, our content, Lies in simple things. Time, like the winged wind When 't bends the flowers, Hath left no mark behind, To count the hours! Now she pales and shrinks away, Earth, into thy gentle bosom! She hath done her bidding here, Angels dear! Some weight of thought, though loath, Bear her perfect soul above, On thee he leaves; Some lines of care round both Perhaps he weaves; Some fears, a soft regret For joys scarce known; Sweet looks we half forget;All else is flown! Ah!- With what thankless heart I mourn and sing! With tongues all sweet and low SOFTLY WOO AWAY HER BREATH. SOFTLY WOO away her breath, Let her leave thee with no strife, CONTOOCOOK RIVER. OF all the streams that seek the sea By mountain pass, or sunny lea, Now where is one that dares to vie With clear Contoocook, swift and shy? Monadnock's child, of snow-drifts born, The snows of many a winter morn, Stoops, safe from hound and horn, to drink. And rills and springs, grown broad and deep, Unite through gorge and glen to How fast its tide goes hurrying down, With rapids now, and now a leap Past giant boulders, black and steep, Plunged in mid water, fain to keep Its current from the meadows green ? But, flecked with foam, it speeds along; And not the birch trees' silvery sheen, Where clematis, the fairy, twines, |