| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| II. The Children of the Night |
| 44. The Torrent |
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| I FOUND a torrent falling in a glen | |
| Where the sun’s light shone silvered and leaf-split; | |
| The boom, the foam, and the mad flash of it | |
| All made a magic symphony; but when | |
| I thought upon the coming of hard men | 5 |
| To cut those patriarchal trees away, | |
| And turn to gold the silver of that spray, | |
| I shuddered. Yet a gladness now and then | |
| Did wake me to myself till I was glad | |
| In earnest, and was welcoming the time | 10 |
| For screaming saws to sound above the chime | |
| Of idle waters, and for me to know | |
| The jealous visionings that I had had | |
| Were steps to the great place where trees and torrents go. | |
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