Song of Life by Charles Mackay

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Song of Life
by Charles Mackay

A traveller on a dusty road
⁠Strewed acorns on the lea;
And one took root and sprouted up,
⁠And grew into a tree.
Love sought its shade at evening-time,
⁠To breathe its early vows;
And Age was pleased, in heights of noon,
⁠To bask beneath its boughs.
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,
⁠The birds sweet music bore—
It stood a glory in its place,
⁠A blessing evermore.

A little spring had lost its way
⁠Amid the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scooped a well
⁠Where weary men might turn.
He walled it in, and hung with care
⁠A ladle on the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
⁠But judged that Toil might drink.
He passed again; and lo! the well,
⁠By summer never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parchéd tongues,
⁠And saved a life beside.

A nameless man, amid the crowd
⁠That thronged the daily mart,
Let fall a word of hope and love,
⁠Unstudied from the heart,
A whisper on the tumult thrown,
⁠A transitory breath,
It raised a brother from the dust,
⁠It saved a soul from death.
O germ! O fount! O word of love!
⁠O thought at random cast!
Ye were but little at the first,
⁠But mighty at the last.