Song of Life

Song of Life

~ by Charles MacKay ~

A traveler 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 heights 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 on 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 nameless man amid the crowd

That thronged the daily mart,

Let fall a word of hope and love,

Unstudied, from the heart,

A whisper of 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 hope!

O thought at random cast!

Ye were but little at the first,

But mighty at the last.