II. THE HYMN OF RIVERS.
Through all the wide lands of the earth
We journey onward to the sea:
Swift from the hills that give us birth
In melting snows we race in mirth
Down through green meadows joyously,
Through wood and dale and desert lands,
Where bridges span our floods with bands
And cities foul our many strands.
THE NILE.
From Afric depths I come
With ever mightier flow,
Thro' deserts vast I go,
Past crumbling cities dumb
And dead, and Sphinxes fair
That with a stony stare
Brood on in old despair.
Past Thebes and Memphis I
Roll on my turbid flood:
Tired now of ceaseless blood,
Beneath this blazing sky
I fain would bring long peace,
From drought a long surcease.
THE TIBER.
Majestically, like some great song
That moves unto a choral end,
My yellow waters sweep along
Through Rome, until at last they wend
Through lonely Latin swamps till loud
Sea-thunders greet them glad and proud.
THE RHINE.
Thro' pasture-lands and vine-clad heights
I curve and sweep—
With memories of a thousand fights
Lying hidden deep,
With echoes of uncounted wars
Long laid asleep—
Past ruins of ancient castles grim
Upon each steep.
A thousand meadows I make green
With all delight
Of flowers, till cornfields clothe the scene
Where once the might
And dread and tumult of fierce war
Filled day and night
With blood and death—tho' now I flow
With waters bright.
I am bless'd and bless: I crave no more
Than that my waves may onward pour
Forever thus, and be to all
The best inheritance of yore.
THE THAMES.
Through wooded banks and lovely ways
My silver waters flow:
I linger long in some sweet place
Where lilies blow:
Past villages and towns I swim
With ever-widening size,
Until at last I chant my hymn
Where London lies.
The commerce of the world I bear,
Till seaward I have pass'd
And, blent with salt waves, onward fare
Through ocean vast.
THE MISSISSIPPI.
With mighty rush and flow I sway
For ever on my kingly way,
And sing a new song night and day
Wherever my brown waters stray:
I sing a great land that shall be
The glory of Humanity,
I chant of nations all made free
Under the flag of Liberty:
Old beyond count, yet young am I—
I read the stars that flash on high,
And in their secret signs espy
A great and glorious prophecy.
THE AMAZON.
Through tropic forests and old lands
With ruin'd fanes, past sun-scorch'd sands,
My mighty flood rolls vast and strong,
Chanting a dirge-like ocean song!
THE MURRAY.
Through Austral plains my waters flow,
Through gum-tree forests deep;
And silently I grow and grow
Until at last I sweep
A thousand miles through plain and wood,
Then turn my face to where
I hear the thundering tidal flood
Boom through the air.
THE GULF STREAM.
From out the Gulf of Mexico
Impetuously my waters flow
And through the fierce Atlantic glide,
A wondrous tepid azure tide—
Till all the lands in the North seas,
Where else the Polar winds would freeze
All life, are filled with warmth and stand
Each like a long-drawn emerald band.
And as from north to south I swing
My song is what the sea-waves sing.
Innumerable, our songs are blent
In one great chorus that is sent,
Now sad and strange, now full of mirth,
In circling music round the earth:
We are the children of the sea,
And we too whisper as we flee
The secret of life's mystery.
