Lesson:

1. Into the sunshine,


Full of the light,


Leaping and flashing,


From morn till night!





2. Into the moonlight,


Whiter than snow,


Waving so flower-like


When the winds blow!





3. Into the starlight,


Rushing in spray,


Happy at midnight,


Happy by day!





4. Ever in motion,


Blithesome and cheery,


Still climbing heavenward,


Never aweary;





5. Glad of all weathers,


Still seeming best,


Upward or downward,


Motion, thy rest;





6. Full of a nature


Nothing can tame,


Changed every moment,


Ever the same;





7. Ceaseless aspiring,


Ceaseless content,


Darkness or sunshine


Thy element;





8. Glorious fountain!


Let my heart be


Fresh, changeful, constant,


Upward like thee!





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


James Russell Lowell was one of the most noted of American poets; also well known as an essayist and lecturer.


He was born at Cambridge, Mass., in 1819, and died there in 1891.





DEFINITIONS


4. Blithesome: Happy and gay.


4. Cheery: In good spirits.


7. Aspiring: Ambitious.


7. Element: The proper habitation of sphere of anything, suitable state.


8. Constant: Fixed and unchanging.