Excerpt from Songs of the Lowly, and Other Poems The Lost Song. I Plucked a wild flower from the river's brim, And drank awhile its faint but fragrant breath. Then cast it forth upon the wave a-swim, And watched it, as I fancied, drift to death. "'Tis lost," I said; but far adown the tide A tempted maiden saw its dainty hue; She snatched it, kneeling at the water side. And vowed: "I will be pure, Sweet Flower, like you." And I, I never knew. I plucked a song from out my heart one day, And tossed it on the noisy stream of rhyme. Sadly I watched it slowly float away 'Mongst thistles, weeds and sprigs of fragrant thyme. "'Tis lost," I said, "'tis lost for evermore. Although within my heart of hearts it grew." And yet, far down beside the reedy shore It taught one soul its lesson sweet and true. And I, I never knew. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.