Poems of Sidney Lanier/Laus Mariæ

by Sidney Lanier

Across the brook of Time man leaping goes
      On stepping-stones of epochs, that uprise
Fixed, memorable, midst broad shallow flows
      Of neutrals, kill-times, sleeps, indifferencies.
So ’twixt each morn and night rise salient heaps:
      Some cross with but a zigzag, jaded pace
From meal to meal: some with convulsive leaps
      Shake the green tussocks of malign disgrace:
And some advance by system and deep art
      O’er vantages of wealth, place, learning, tact.
But thou within thyself, dear manifold heart,
      Dost bind all epochs in one dainty Fact.
            Oh, sweet, my pretty sum of history,
            I leapt the breadth of Time in loving thee!