The Mill-Water + 

Only the sound remains + 

Of the old mill; + 

Gone is the wheel; + 

On the prone roof and walls the nettle reigns. + 

Water that toils no more + 

Dangles white locks + 

And, falling, mocks + 

The music of the mill-wheel’s busy roar. + 

Pretty to see, by day + 

Its sound is naught + 

Compared with thought + 

And talk and noise of labour and of play. + 

Night makes the difference. + 

In calm moonlight, + 

Gloom infinite, + 

The sound comes surging in upon the sense: + 

Solitude, company⁠— + 

When it is night⁠— + 

Grief or delight + 

By it must haunted or concluded be. + 

Often the silentness + 

Has but this one + 

Companion; + 

Wherever one creeps in the other is: + 

Sometimes a thought is drowned + 

By it, sometimes + 

Out of it climbs; + 

All thoughts begin or end upon this sound, + 

Only the idle foam + 

Of water falling + 

Changelessly calling, + 

Where once men had a work-place and a home. + 