1 A stream of tender gladness, <br />2 Of filmy sun, and opal tinted skies ; <br />3 Of warm midsummer air that lightly lies <br />4 In mystic rings, <br />5 Where softly swings <br />6 The music of a thousand wings <br />7 That almost tones to sadness. <br /> <br />8 Midway 'twixt earth and heaven, <br />9 A bubble in the pearly air I seem <br />10 To float upon the sapphire floor, a dream <br />11 Of clouds of snow, <br />12 Above, below, <br />13 Drift with my drifting, dim and slow, <br />14 As twilight drifts to even. <br /> <br />15 The little fern-leaf, bending <br />16 Upon the brink, its green reflection greets, <br />17 And kisses soft the shadow that it meets <br />18 With touch so fine, <br />19 The border line <br />20 The keenest vision can't define ; <br />21 So perfect is the blending. <br /> <br />22 The far, fir trees that cover <br />23 The brownish hills with needles green and gold, <br />24 The arching elms o'erhead, vinegrown and old, <br />25 Repictured are <br />26 Beneath me far, <br />27 Where not a ripple moves to mar <br />28 Shades underneath, or over. <br /> <br />29 Mine is the undertone ; <br />30 The beauty, strength, and power of the land <br />31 Will never stir or bend at my command ; <br />32 But all the shade <br />33 Is marred or made, <br />34 If I but dip my paddle blade ; <br />35 And it is mine alone. <br /> <br />36 O! pathless world of seeming! <br />37 O! pathless life of mine whose deep ideal <br />38 Is more my own than ever was the real. <br />39 For others Fame <br />40 And Love's red flame, <br />41 And yellow gold : I only claim <br />42 The shadows and the dreaming.<br /><br />E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shadow-river-muskoka/
