Behold the rocky wall <br /> That down its sloping sides <br /> Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as they fall, <br /> In rushing river-tides! <br /> Yon stream, whose sources run <br /> Turned by a pebble's edge, <br /> Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun <br /> Through the cleft mountain-ledge. <br /> The slender rill had strayed, <br /> But for the slanting stone, <br /> To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid <br /> Of foam-flecked Oregon. <br /> <br /> So from the heights of Will <br /> Life's parting stream descends, <br /> And, as a moment turns its slender rill, <br /> Each widening torrent bends, -- <br /> <br /> From the same cradle's side, <br /> From the same mother's knee, -- <br /> One to long darkness and the frozen tide, <br /> One to the Peaceful Sea!<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-two-streams/
