Shadows By Thomas Durfee

How much of earth’s beauty is due to its shadows!
The tree and the cliff and the far-floating cloudlet,
The uniform light intercepting and crossing,
Give manifold color and change to the landscape.
How much, too, our life is in debt to its shadows;
To griefs that refine us and cares that develope,
And wants that keep friendship and love from decaying;
With nothing to cross us we perish of ennui.