Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia: Nile, the River | | A Traveller’s Impression on the Nile | | Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885) |
| | | WHEN you have lain for weeks together | |
| On such a noble river’s breast, | |
| And learnt its face in every weather, | |
| And loved its motions and its rest,— | |
| |
| ’T is hard at some appointed place | 5 |
| To check your course and turn your prow, | |
| And objects for themselves retrace | |
| You past with added hope just now. | |
| |
| The silent highway forward beckons, | |
| And all the bars that reason plants | 10 |
| Now disappointed fancy reckons | |
| As foolish fears or selfish wants. | |
| |
| The very rapids, rocks, and shoals | |
| Seem but temptations which the stream | |
| Holds out to energetic souls, | 15 |
| That worthy of its love may seem. | |
| |
| But life is full of limits; heed not | |
| One more or less,—the forward track | |
| May often give you what you need not, | |
| While wisdom waits on turning back. | 20 | | | |
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