Appendix N 



O river glorious in the mountain canyon, 



Where thy fair birth is placed! 

 O river sad, whose waves are lost and swallowed, 



In alkali and waste! 



O glorious youth, by wondrous dreams surrounded 



With fragrance, light, and life! 

 O sad old age, whose force is dissipated 



In idle, aimless strife! 



My life I see, as mirrored in the river, 



This only may I know, 

 'Tis hastening onward toward the Lake of Silence 



Whose waters ne'er o'erflow. 



The river's windings once again I follow, 



Across the desert bare, 

 By lines of grateful oaks and bending willows, 



Which tell the water there. 



Along the margin sweetest flowers are springing, 



The birds sing in the trees; 

 Where'er the river goes is life and verdure 



The desert vanishes. 



Dear heart, if so my life be like the river, 



Its fate be mine; 

 Let it flow on, its banks be green forever, 



What matter, oak or pine? 



I HEARD A LARK 



I heard a lark in Heaven sing; 

 He was not saying anything. 

 No words perhaps had he to say, 

 And he was very far away. 

 Yet she who heard him knew for truth, 

 Knew that he sang of Love and Youth, 

 Each note as fresh and all unworn 

 As on Creation's natal morn. 

 Nothing is old and nothing new, 

 For Life began with Me and You. 



842 3 



