Shadow River

MUSKOKA     A stream of tender gladness,     Of filmy sun, and opal tinted skies;     Of warm midsummer air that lightly lies     In mystic rings,     Where softly swings     The music of a thousand wings     That almost tones to sadness.     Midway 'twixt earth and heaven,     A bubble in the pearly air, I seem     To float upon the sapphire floor, a dream     Of clouds of snow,     Above, below,     Drift with my drifting, dim and slow,     As twilight drifts to even.     The little fern-leaf, bending     Upon the brink, its green reflection greets,     And kisses soft the shadow that it meets     With touch so fine,     The border line     The keenest vision can't define;     So perfect is the blending.     The far, fir trees that cover     The brownish hills with needles green and gold,     The arching elms o'erhead, vinegrown and old,     Repictured are     Beneath me far,     Where not a ripple moves to mar     Shades underneath, or over.     Mine is the undertone;     The beauty, strength, and power of the land     Will never stir or bend at my command;     But all the shade     Is marred or made,     If I but dip my paddle blade;     And it is mine alone.     O! pathless world of seeming!     O! pathless life of mine whose deep ideal     Is more my own than ever was the real.     For others Fame     And Love's red flame,     And yellow gold: I only claim     The shadows and the dreaming.