LIFE COMPARED TO A STREAM.
Life glides away, Lorenzo, like a brook;
Forever changing, unperceiv’d the change.
In the same brook none ever bathed him twice:
To the same life none ever twice awoke.
We call the brook the same; the same we think
Our life, though still more rapid in its flow;
Nor mark the much irrevocably laps’d,
And mingled with the sea; or shall we say
(Retaining still the brook to bear us on)
That life is like a vessel on the stream?
In life embark’d, we smoothly down the tide
Of time descend, but not on time intent;
Amus’d, unconscious of the gliding wave;
Till on a sudden we perceive a shock;
We start, awake, look out; our bark is burst!
Edward Young, 1681–1755