DOWN and up, and up and down,
Over and over and over;
Turn in the little seed, dry and brown,
Turn out the bright red clover.
Work and the sun your work shall share,
And the rain in its time shall fall;
For Nature, she worketh everywhere,
And the grace of God through all.
With hand on the spade and heart in the sky, Dress the ground and till it;
Turn in the little seed, brown and dry,
Turn out the golden millet.
Work and your house shall be duly fed;
Work and rest shall be won;
I hold that a man had better be dead
Than alive, when his work is done!
Down and up, and up and down,
On the hilltop, low in the valley;
Turn in the little seed, dry and brown,
Turn out the rose and the lily.
Work with a plan, or without a plan,
And your ends, they shall be shaped true; Work, and learn at first hand, like a man, The best way to know is to do!
Down and up till life shall close,
Ceasing not your praises;
Turn in the wild white winter snows,
Turn out the sweet spring daisies.
Work and the sun your work shall share
And the rain in its time shall fall;
For Nature, she worketh everywhere,
And the grace of God through all.
COME from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.
Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I clatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles.
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my bank I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I wind about, and in and out
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling;
And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery water break
Above the golden gravel.
And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows.
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.
I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses:
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
|