Charles Mackay

Song of Life

A traveller on a dusty road
   Strewed acorns on the lea;
And one took root and sprouted up,
   And grew into a tree.
Love sought its shade at evening-time,
   To breathe its early vows;
And Age was pleased, in heats of noon,
   To bask beneath its boughs.
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,
   The birds sweet music bore--
It stood a glory in its place,
   A blessing evermore.

A little spring had lost its way
   Amid the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scooped a well
   Where weary men might turn;
He walled it in, and hung with care
   A ladle at the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
   But judged that Toil might drink.
He passed again; and lo! the well,
   By summer never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parched tongues.
   And saved a life beside.

A dreamer dropped a random thought;
   'Twas old, and yet 'twas new;
A simple fancy of the brain,
   But strong in being true.
It shone upon a genial mind,
   And, lo! its light became
A lamp of life, a beacon ray,
   A monitory flame:
The thought was small; its issue great;
   A watch-fire on the hill,
It sheds its radiance far adown,
   And cheers the valley still!

A nameless man, amid the crowd
   That thronged the daily mart,
Let fall a word of Hope and Love,
   Unstudied from the heart;
A whisper on the tumult thrown -
   A transitory breath -
It raised a brother from the dust, -
   It saved a soul from death.
O germ! O fount! O word of love!
   O thought at random cast!
Ye were but little at the first,
   But mighty at the last!