Count the gold and silver blossoms
Spring has scattered o’er the lea;
Count the softly-sounding ripples
Sparkling in the summer sea.
Count the lightly-flickering shadows
In the autumn forest glade;
Count pale nature’s scattered tear-drops,
Icy gems by winter made.
Count the tiny blades that glisten
Early in the morning dew;
Count the desert sand that stretches
Under noon-tide’s dome of blue.
Count the notes that wood-birds warble
In the evening’s fading light;
Count the stars that gleam and twinkle
O’er the firmament by night.
When thy counting all is done,
Scarce ETERNITY’S begun.
Reader! pause! Where wilt thou be
During thine ETERNITY?