| |
| FLOW on, sweet river! like his verse | |
| Who lies beneath this sculptured hearse; | |
| Nor wait beside the churchyard wall | |
| For him who cannot hear thy call. | |
| |
| Thy playmate once; I see him now | 5 |
| A boy with sunshine on his brow, | |
| And hear in Stratford’s quiet street | |
| The patter of his little feet. | |
| |
| I see him by thy shallow edge | |
| Wading knee-deep amid the sedge; | 10 |
| And lost in thought, as if thy stream | |
| Were the swift river of a dream. | |
| |
| He wonders whitherward it flows; | |
| And fain would follow where it goes, | |
| To the wide world, that shall erelong | 15 |
| Be filled with his melodious song. | |
| |
| Flow on, fair stream! That dream is o’er; | |
| He stands upon another shore; | |
| A vaster river near him flows, | |
| And still he follows where it goes. | 20 |
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