Classic Poem

Ha, little one!
Would'st like a torrent run
That spurns the mountain steep,
And falls in thunder? O, brave leap! brave leap!
'Twas excellently done.
Nay, I am not in fun!
You silly thing, that you should slink
And hide among the cresses! only think!
Pooh! 'tis a very Nile! there, there! that's right!
Flash out again into the light!
Have at the biggest stone—O, nobly meant!
I swear it was magnificent!

And thus I chaffed the stream, but I was wrong:
He never dreamt of fountains
Rock-scooped in mighty mountains;
He never made pretence
To power; but in his own sweet innocence
He danced, and sang thereto a simple song;
And after that one frolic,
To sneer at which were well-nigh diabolic,
He sang it all day long.