One star alone from the blue sky
Looks down upon the simple stream,
With such a quiet, loving eye,
That I perforce must dream.
And so I wish, if my rough brow
Should seam and furrow with the strife,
The star that leaps and kindles now
Might light my path of life.
That I, when weary with the fight,
And wishing for a rest at length,
Might look and draw from out its light
A comfort and a strength.
And gird my soul with stronger powers
To fight the lower thought and deed,
That agitate this life of ours
As winds will shake the reed.
But still in moods of calmer tone,
I feel a longing to retire,
And watch the broad world all alone,
And plod, but not aspire.
For I have thought, and still I think,
'Tis wiser that our lives should be
Like this fair stream within its brink,
So quiet, so calm and free.
Or like that star above, which beams
For ever down in holy mirth,
Than wed the heart to idle dreams,
Whose goal is still the earth.
O let me spend my little hour
In all the calm that Nature gives—
Profuse in plenitude of dower
Where each mute being lives.
For in the hush of her sweet face,
The soul will burst its earth-forged bands,
And wing its flight to purer space
In other purer lands.
Therefore it comes that still I love
The dim, sweet twilight, and the light
That comes, like whispers, from above,
And shines on me to-night.