Ossian Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

WE DO ALL FADE AS A LEAF.
Each one in the Httle cluster
Of his kindred here below.
" Each one his own orbit filling,
Like those tiny leaves so fair,
On this oak's broad branches thrilling
To the evening breezes there.
" Weak are men, the ripples cresting
Of duration's airy surge ;
Weak as are those leaves unresting
Which the wind's wild breathings urge.
This, I said, my thought pursuing,
Gazing on the leaves o'erhead,
And their fluttering motion viewing,
While a gradual gloom they bred.
" In my day and generation
Am 1 not as one of these,
Fluttering in this great creation
Like a leaflet in the breeze.
" All those things that ever tried me —
All those sweets that came my way,
As slight as some small leaf beside me
Shimmering in the evening ray.
" I, amid time's mighty story.
Play a part as light and brief;
Or let me boast or let me glory,
As the quivering of a leaf.
" All the work I have assigned me
But the twinkling of the blade-
All the stamp I leave behind me
Pictured in its feeble shade."
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