The Streamlet's Song (A Few Words for Wednesday)

—Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

I found this little poem, by a forgotten poet, in the journal whose banner you see above. How does one attempt to wrap their mind around the immensity of God and the smallness of our individual selves? If God is the ocean, than we are just streamlets...

The Streamlet's Song.

As on its course the mountain stream
Unto the valley sped,
The echoes listened, wondering,
To what its murmurs said.
Deep in that mystic solitude
Singing, it passed along;
Around was silence, hushed repose;
This was the streamlet's song:
"Ever, ever, flowing onwards, neither rest
nor sleep for me;
Tho' my course be smooth or rugged, onwards,
onwards, to the sea."

"I sing beside the peasant's cot,
Beside the castle keep,
Mid forest gloom, neath sunshine bright,
And where the weary sleep,
Thro' meads where flowers of varied hue
Around their perfume shed,
Thro' rocky gorge and arid plain,
On to my ocean bed.
Ever, ever, flowing onwards, neither'rest
nor sleep for me;
Tho' my course be smooth or rugged,
onwards, onwards, to the sea."

"On, on, the scorching air to cool,
The earth to fertilize,
Of hunted stag the thirst to slake
Ere yet he quivering dies.
On, to refresh the warrior pale
Who, couched on blood-stained sod,
Cries,'Water from yon streamlet give,
One drop for love of God!'
Ever, ever, flowing onwards, neither rest
nor sleep for me;
Tho' my course be smooth or rugged,
onwards, onwards, to the sea."

"The type am I of human life,
As down the course of years
It onward flows, mid laughter now,
Anon mid bitter tears,
Mid reckless mirth, mid breaking hearts,
On, till the sands are run,
On, till is gained the tideless sea,
On, till the goal is won,
Ever, ever, flowing onwards, neither rest
nor sleep for me;
Tho' my course be smooth or rugged,
onwards, onwards, to the sea."

—A. M. Healy