Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face.
W. Wordsworth (Three Years She Grew).
As the art of life is learned, it will be found at last that all lovely things are also necessary: the wild flower by the wayside, as well as the tended corn; and the wild birds and creatures of the forest, as well as the tended cattle: because man doth not live by bread alone, but also by the desert manna; by every wondrous word and unknowable work of God.
John Ruskin.
Alas! the long gray years have vanquished me,
The shadow of the inexorable days!