rivers

"Majestic stream! along thy banks, In silent, stately, solemn ranks, The forests stand, and seem with pride To gaze upon thy mighty tide."

"Monarch of Rivers in the wide domain Where Freedom writes her signature in stars, And bids her eagle bear the blazing scroll, To usher in the reign of peace and love, Thou mighty Mississippi!"

"O grandly flowing river! O silver-gliding river! Thy springing willows shiver In the sunset as of old... O gay, oblivious river! O sunset-kindled river! Do you remember ever The eyes and skies so blue... O stern impassive river! O still unanswering river! The shivering willows quiver As the night-winds moan and rave."

"I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset."

"And the Mississippi, an inland main, With its orange-groves and its fields of cane.Sweet, round the tawny river’s mouth, Blew the rare odors of the South."

"The Mississippi of the North! bright stream On whose fair bosom first of all their race, Marquette and Joliet float, and fondly dream Of empires new and heathen brought to grace. How pride and wonder lighted up each face While down the stream the brave explorers sped, Marking the devious windings as they trace The noble river’s wood-environed bed To where Missouri’s waves the gentle waters wed. * * * * * Untamed and restless river! in thy bed, From Cape Girardeau to the delta’s verge, Vibrating waywardly; thy wild waves fed With spoil of shores down-fallen in the surge, And floating forests, which thy waters urge In endless drift into the distant sea, Where thou and all thy hundred confluents merge; In thy long reaching flow still shalt thou be From man’s restraining masonry forever free!"

"The Nile, forever new and old, Among the living and the dead, Its mighty, mystic stream has rolled."

"Mysterious Flood,—that through the silent sands Hast wandered, century on century, Watering the length of great Egyptian lands, Which were not, but for thee."

"The higher Nilus swells, The more it promises; as it ebbs, the seedsman Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain, And shortly comes the harvest."

"Whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile."

"It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands, Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream."

"Son of the old moon-mountains African! Stream of the Pyramid and Crocodile! We call thee fruitful, and that very while A desert, fills our seeing's inward span."

"O'er Egypt's land of memory floods are level, And they are thine, O Nile! and well thou knowest The soul-sustaining airs and blasts of evil, And fruits, and poisons spring where'er thou flowest."

"The flood carrying all before it like merchants, caravans loaded with gold, pearls, peacock feathers and rows of white tusk and fragrant woods."

"Bending to a curve, the river, surface colored by petals, gold yellow pollen, honey, the ochre flow of elephant lust, looked much like a rainbow."

"Ravaging hillsides, uprooting trees, covered with fallen leaves all over, the waters came, like a monkey clan facing restless seas looking for a bridge."

"Thick-faced proud elephants ranged with foaming cavalier horses filling the air with the noise of war, raising banners, the flood rushes as for a battle with the sea."

"Stream of numberless kings in the line of the Sun, continuous in virtue: the river branches into deltas, mother's milk to all lives on the salt sea-surrounded land."

"Scattering a robber camp on the hills with a rain of arrows, the sacred women beating their bellies and gathering bow and arrow as they run, the waters assault villages like the armies of a king."

"Stealing milk and buttermilk, guzzling on warm ghee and butter straight from the pots on the ropes, leaning the marutam tree on the kuruntam carrying away the clothes and bracelets of goatherd girls at water games, like Krsna dancing on the spotted snake, the waters are naughty."

"Turning forest into slope, field into wilderness, seashore into fertile land, changing boundaries, exchanging landscapes, the reckless waters roared on like the pasts that hurry close on the heels of lives."

"Born of Himalayan stone and mingling with the seas, it spreads, ceaselessly various, one and many at once, like that Original even the measureless Vedas cannot measure with words."

"Through pollen-dripping groves, clumps of champak, lotus pools, water places with new sands, flowering fields cross-fenced with creepers, like a life filling and emptying a variety of bodies, the river flows on."

"And see the rivers how they run Through woods and meads, in shade and sun, Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,— Wave succeeding wave, they go A various journey to the deep, Like human life to endless sleep!"

"The fountains of sacred rivers flow upwards, (i.e. everything is turned topsy turvy)."

"Two ways the rivers Leap down to different seas, and as they roll Grow deep and still, and their majestic presence Becomes a benefaction to the towns They visit, wandering silently among them, Like patriarchs old among their shining tents."

"By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals."

"Les rivières sent des chemins qui marchant et qui portent où l'on veut aller."

"Viam qui nescit qua deveniat ad mare Eum oportet amnem quærere comitem sibi."

"May the river of love always flow from its own lap."

"Now scantier limits the proud arch confine, And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine; A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd, And little eagles wave their wings in gold."

"From Stirling Castle we had seen The mazy Forth unravelled; Had trod the banks of Clyde and Tay, And with the Tweed had travelled; And when we came to Clovenford, Then said "my winsome marrow," "Whate'er betide, we'll turn aside, And see the braes of Yarrow.""

"Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise."

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree; Where Alph, the sacred river ran, Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea."

"At last the Muses rose, * * * And scattered, * * * as they flew, Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa's bowers To Arno's myrtle border."

"Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore, O'erhung with wild woods, thickening green; The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar Twined amorous round the raptured scene."

"Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes! My peace with these, my love with those. The bursting tears my heart declare; Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr."

"Yet I will look upon thy face again, My own romantic Bronx, and it will be A face more pleasant than the face of men. Thy waves are old companions, I shall see A well remembered form in each old tree And hear a voice long loved in thy wild minstrelsy."

"Where stray ye, Muses! in what lawn or grove, * * * * * * In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides, Or else where Cam his winding vales divides?"

"Out of the hills of Habersham, Down the valleys of Hall, I hurry amain to reach the plain: Run the rapid and leap the fall, Split at the rock, and together again Accept my bed, or narrow or wide, And flee from folly on every side With a lover's pain to attain the plain, Far from the hills of Habersham, Far from the valleys of Hall."

"How sweet to move at summer's eve By Clyde's meandering stream, When Sol in joy is seen to leave The earth with crimson beam; When islands that wandered far Above his sea couch lie, And here and there some gem-like star Re-opes its sparkling eye."

"Then I saw the Congo, creeping through the black, Cutting through the jungle with a golden track."

"Flow on, lovely Dee, flow on, thou sweet river, Thy banks' purest stream shall be dear to me ever."

""O Mary, go and call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands o' Dee;" The western wind was wild and dank wi' foam And all alone went she."

"Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair; How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu' o' care!"

"Oh, my beloved nymph, fair Dove, Princess of rivers, how I love Upon thy flowery banks to lie, And view thy silver stream, When gilded by a summer's beam! And in it all thy wanton fry, Playing at liberty; And with my angle, upon them The all of treachery I ever learned, industriously to try!"

"On Linden, when the sun was low, All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, And dark as winter was the flow Of Isar, rolling rapidly."

"Thou soft-flowing Keedron by thy silver stream Our Saviour at midnight when Cynthia's pale beam Shone bright on the waters, would oftentimes stray And lose in thy murmurs the toils of the day."

"On this I ponder Where'er I wander, And thus grow fonder, Sweet Cork, of thee,— With thy bells of Shandon, That sounds so grand on The pleasant waters Of the river Lee."

"On Leven's banks, while free to rove, And tune the rural pipe to love, I envied not the happiest swain That ever trod the Arcadian plain. Pure stream! in whose transparent wave My youthful limbs I wont to lave; No torrents stain thy limpid source, No rocks impede thy dimpling course, That sweetly warbles o'er its bed, With white, round, polish'd pebbles spread."