The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

READER,
A Little Picture. 547
A LITTLE PICTURE.
hadst thou but seen it, just one little bit of sky
Lighting the tops of the mountains, with cloud-wreaths
hurrying by.
One little simple village, down in the valley below.
Caught in the mellow beauty of the soft autumnal glow.
One bright, broad sheet of water, all glimmering shine and sheen,
Of glinting golden sunlight, with shadowing leaves between.
With one little island basking down on the water's breast.
Lulled by the eddying ripples, like to a child at rest.
This was what lay on the surface—e'en a baby might spell
Half of the lovely story the painter had told so well,
By groups of little children singing gaily in the grass,
And by yet another token—the lover and his lass
Walking softly through the vineyards, all silent from sheer bliss ;
A very child had guessed the thought that shone from out of this
Had felt the end of nature by the droop of laden vines.
The " life in death " mysterious of all her secret shrines.
But deepest, subtlest thought of all—the seeking after truth,
The patient striving to explain the world's perpetual youth.
This spoke in deeper undertones, to souls more finely wrought
To comprehend the higher aims, the noblest range of thought
And even these might bow the knee where that pure soul had trod,
For the man had drunk at the source of light, and painted the
smile of God !
Milan, 2nd November, iSg2.
M. O. W.
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