Deep-Sea Springs

THOU readest how in lands of tropic heat,
When lake and river fail and thirst is sore,
The parchëd dweller by the burning shore
Dives, while the sultry tides above him meet,
And fills a leathern sack from waters sweet
That, voiceless and unseen forevermore,
Unblending with the brackish current pour
From some remote spring-gladdened mountain-seat.

Thou readest too my heart ? In fate allied
To that poor diver of the salt-sea waste,
Finding all else but leaves a bitter taste,
Recourse it hath not, in the whole world wide,
O Love! save where, deep, silent, and untraced,
The freshening waters flow beneath the world’s faint tide.