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FAIR river! not unknown to classic song, | |
| Which still in varying beauty roll’st along, | |
| Where first thy infant fount is faintly seen, | |
| A line of silver mid a fringe of green; | |
| Or where near towering rocks thy bolder tide, | 5 |
| To win the giant-guarded pass, doth glide; | |
| Or where in azure mantle pure and free | |
| Thou giv’st thy cool hand to the waiting sea. | |
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| Though broader streams our sister realms may boast, | |
| Herculean cities, and a prouder coast, | 10 |
| Yet from the bound where hoarse St. Lawrence roars, | |
| To where La Plata rocks resounding shores, | |
| From where the arms of slimy Nilus shine, | |
| To the blue waters of the rushing Rhine, | |
| Or where Ilissus glows like diamond spark, | 15 |
| Or sacred Ganges whelms her votaries dark, | |
| No brighter skies the eye of day may see, | |
| Nor soil more verdant, nor a race more free. | |
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| See! where amid their cultured vales they stand, | |
| The generous offspring of a simple land; | 20 |
| Too rough for flattery, and all fear above, | |
| King, priest, and prophet mid the homes they love,— | |
| On equal laws their anchored hopes are stayed, | |
| By all interpreted and all obeyed; | |
| Alike the despot and the slave they hate, | 25 |
| And rise, firm columns of a happy state. | |
| To them content is bliss, and labor health, | |
| And knowledge power, and pure religion wealth. | |
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| The farmer, here, with honest pleasure sees | |
| His orchards blushing to the fervid breeze, | 30 |
| His bleating flocks the shearer’s care that need, | |
| His waving woods the wintry hearth that feed, | |
| His hardy steers that break the yielding soil, | |
| His patient sons who aid their father’s toil, | |
| The ripening fields for joyous harvest drest, | 35 |
| And the white spire that points a world of rest. * * * * * | |
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