The Unremitting Voice of Nightly Streams
<blockquote class="quote"> The unremitting voice of nightly streams<br> That wastes so oft, we think, its tuneful powers,<br> If neither soothing to the worm that gleams<br>
Through dewy grass, nor small birds hushed in bowers,<br>
Nor unto silent leaves and drowsy flowers,<br>
That voice of unpretending harmony<br>
(For who what is shall measure by what seems<br>
To be, or not to be,<br>
Or tax high Heaven with prodigality?)<br>
Wants not a healing influence that can creep<br>
Into the human breast, and mix with sleep<br>
To regulate the motion of our dreams<br>
For kindly issues as through every clime<br>
Was felt near murmuring brooks in earliest time;<br>
As at this day, the rudest swains who dwell<br>
Where torrents roar, or hear the tinkling knell<br>
Of water-breaks, with grateful heart could tell.<br><br><blockquote><p><em>- William Wordsworth, 1846</em></p></blockquote>
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