Beaver Brook

Hushed with broad sunlight lies the hill,And, minuting the long day's loss,The cedar's shadow, slow and still,Creeps o'er its dial of gray moss.

Warm noon brims full the valley's cup,The aspen's leaves are scarce astir;Only the little mill sends upIts busy, never-ceasing burr.

Climbing the loose-piled wall that hemsThe road along the mill-pond's brinkFrom 'neath the arching barberry-stems,My footstep scares the shy chewink.

Beneath a bony buttonwoodThe mill's red door lets forth the din;The whitened miller, dust-imbued,Flits past the square of dark within.

No mountain torrent's strength is here;Sweet Beaver, child of forest still,Heaps its small pitcher to the ear,And gently waits the miller's will.

Swift slips Undine along the raceUnheard, and then, with flashing bound,Floods the dull wheel with light and grace,And, laughing, hunts the loath drudge round.

The miller dreams not at what costThe quivering millstones hum and whirl,Nor how for every turn are tostArmfuls of diamonds and of pearl.

But Summer cleared my happier eyesWith drops of some celestial juice,To see how Beauty underlies,Forevermore each form of use.

And more; methought I saw that flood,Which now so dull and darkling steals,Thick, here and there, with human blood,To turn the world's laborious wheels.

No more than doth the miller there,Shut in our several cells, do weKnow with what waste of beauty rareMoves every day's machinery.

Surely the wiser time shall comeWhen this fine overplus of might,No longer sullen, slow, and dumb,Shall leap to music and to light.

In that new childhood of the EarthLife of itself shall dance and play,Fresh blood in Time's shrunk veins make mirth,And labor meet delight half-way.