A river ran through a golden wood That lay bathed in the peaceful fall of eventide And two streams sprung from it as I stood And watched them meandering into the light
I found a place to quench my thirst And kneeled down on the banks of the first stream But the water reflected my sight, and I reversed For it showed a shape that I had never seen
Long had this vision dried out the soul in me And obstructed me to drink and water it even so But how solid is a concrete thing that leans upon a fantasy When thereby hangs the entire world you know
I ran towards the second brook, drawn by sheer objection Where I knelt down and drank most eagerly Yet the water was troubled, and without reflection Thus with the troubled water, the image dissolved within me
My thirst was quenched, and bid the image to escape It was in these golden woods that I had learned to see T'is often the beauty unacquainted with its shape That shapes the most fair and solid imagery