THE TWO STREAMS

by: Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

EHOLD the rocky wall

That down its sloping sides

Pours the swift rain-drops, blending as they fall,

In rushing river-tides!

 

Yon stream, whose sources run

Turned by a pebble's edge,

Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun

Through the cleft mountain-ledge.

 

The slender rill had strayed,

But for the slanting stone,

To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid

Of foam-flecked Oregon.

 

So from the heights of Will

Life's parting stream descends,

And, as a moment turns its slender rill,

Each widening torrent bends,--

 

From the same cradle's side,

From the same mother's knee,--

One to long darkness and the frozen tide,

One to the Peaceful Sea!

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