The Two Streams in  General   

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!

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Other poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes:

• A Familiar Letter
• A Farewell to Agassiz
• A Parody on “A Psalm of Life”
• Bill and Joe
• Cacoethes Scribendi
• Contentment
• Daily Trials by a Sensitive Man
• Dorothy Q.
• For the Moore Centennial Celebration
• Martha
• My Aviary
• Old Ironsides
• Poem (Halleck monument dedication)
• Sun and Shadow
• The Boys
• The Chambered Nautilus
• The Dorchester Giant
• The Flaâneur
• The Flower of Liberty
• The Height of the Ridiculous
• The Iron Gate
• The Last Leaf
• The Living Temple
• The Old Man Dreams
• The Opening of the Piano
• The Organ-Blower
• The September Gale
• The Silent Melody
• The Two Streams
• The Voiceless
• Under the Violets
• Union and Liberty
• Æstivation