This valley now in sun, and now in shade,
Is like the musings of your tender mind,
That pauses, bathed in joy, yet half afraid
To look before, and then to gaze behind.

Along the fragrant meadows slowly steal,
The pensive, drifting shadows, purple blue,
As o'er your heart, that shrinks the while to feel
The kiss of promise wonderful and new.

Look upward. Child, to where across the skies
Float happy clouds, aglow with morning light!
It is their shadow that before you lies
Upon the plain, and see, the clouds are white !