The Lesson of the Water Mill
Sarah Doudney
1841 to 1926
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Listen to the water-mill;
Through the livelong day,
How ______ clicking of its wheel
Wears the hours away!
Languidly ______ autumn wind,
Stirs the forest leaves,
From the field ______ reapers sing,
Binding up their sheaves;
And a proverb ______ my mind
As a spell is cast—
“The mill ______ grind
With the water that is past.”
Autumn ______ revive no more
Leaves that once are shed,
And ______ sickle cannot reap
Corn once gatherèd;
Flows the ruffled ______ on,
Tranquil, deep, and still;
Never gliding back again
______ the water-mill;
Truly speaks the proverb old
With a ______ vast—
“The mill cannot grind
With the water that ______ past.”
Take the lesson to thyself,
True and ______ heart;
Golden youth is fleeting by,
Summer hours depart;
______ to make the most of life,
Lose no happy day;
Time will never bring thee back
Chances swept away!
______ no tender word unsaid,
Love while love shall last —
“The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past.”
Work while yet the daylight shines,
Man of ______ and will!
Never does the streamlet glide
Useless by ______ mill;
Wait not till to-morrow’s sun
Beams upon thy way,
All that thou canst call thine own
Lies in ______ “To-day;”
Power, intellect and health
May not always last—
“The mill cannot grind
With the water that is past.”
Oh, the wasted hours of life
That have ______ by!
Oh, the good that might have been—
Lost, ______ a sigh!
Love that we might once have saved
______ a single word,
Thoughts conceived, but never penned,
Perishing unheard;—
Take the proverb to thine heart,
Take, and ______ it fast—
“The mill cannot grind
With the water ______ is past.”