Oliver Wendell Holmes

Here you will find the Poem The Two Streams of poet Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Two Streams

Behold the rocky wall 
 That down its sloping sides 
 Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as they fall, 
 In rushing river-tides! 
 Yon stream, whose sources run 
 Turned by a pebble's edge, 
 Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun 
 Through the cleft mountain-ledge. 
 The slender rill had strayed, 
 But for the slanting stone, 
 To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid 
 Of foam-flecked Oregon. 

 So from the heights of Will 
 Life's parting stream descends, 
 And, as a moment turns its slender rill, 
 Each widening torrent bends, -- 

 From the same cradle's side, 
 From the same mother's knee, -- 
 One to long darkness and the frozen tide, 
 One to the Peaceful Sea!