The Idiot By the Brook
An Idiot- boy, with earnest look,
Stood gazing on a little brook.
“Lad” said an old man, passing by,
Who marked the striplings steadfast eye,
“Why gaze you so upon the stream?”
The youth looked: a fitful gleam
Of half intelligence o’erspread
His simple features, as he said:
“I’m going over, but shall stay
Till all the water runs away.”
“You’d stay your life,” the man replied,
“And yet not reach the other side;
For long as time this brook will flow,
And you must wade, if you would go.”
So, reader stand not looking on
Till difficulties waves be gone;
But wade or swim through brook or river,
For they will flow and flow for ever.
W.R.E.
1872
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