Minor Poems

A Farewell

Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
 Thy tribute wave deliver;
No more by thee my steps shall be,
 Forever and forever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
 A rivulet, then a river;
Nowhere by thee my steps shall be,
 Forever and forever.

But here will sigh thine alder-tree,
 And here thine aspen shiver;
And here by thee will hum the bee,
 Forever and forever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
 A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
 Forever and forever.

          Alfred Tennyson.