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Solitude
WILD waters of Pocantico! | |
| Stray rivulet of wood and glen! | |
| Thy murmuring laughters, soft and low, | |
| Elude the alien ears of men. | |
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| O’er broader bosoms than thy own | 5 |
| The fleeting wings of commerce glide; | |
| Hid in thy sylvan haunts alone | |
| The nymphs of fairy-land abide. | |
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| The azure blue of summer’s sky | |
| Scarce mirrors in thy crystal sheen; | 10 |
| The lover draws his tenderest sigh | |
| Far in thy shadowy dells unseen. | |
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| Along thy gently coursing stream | |
| The huntsman, heedless, loves to roam; | |
| The poet dreams his fondest dream | 15 |
| Within thy solitary home. | |
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| Thou art well guarded by a host, | |
| For on thy sloping ’bankments stand | |
| Such gnarléd sentinels as boast | |
| A lineage aged as the land. | 20 |
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| No hardy woodman dare intrude | |
| To rob thee of thy ancient shade, | |
| Thy mimic cliffs have long withstood | |
| The furrowing plough and vassal spade. | |
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| The wild thrush wings its reedy note | 25 |
| Through thy lone forest, liquid clear, | |
| Whose answering echoes, far remote, | |
| Fling back a dim and plaintive cheer. | |
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| No tone enslaved in silvery string | |
| Or sense-enrapturing voice is heard | 30 |
| To match thy melodies, or sing | |
| A challenge to thy minstrel bird. | |
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| Here sovereign Nature teaches rest; | |
| The quiet mosses on the stone | |
| Weave o’er its silent, flinty breast | 35 |
| An emerald softness all their own. | |
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| The pebbly sands along thy shore | |
| Lie mutely, lulled by babbling waves; | |
| The fringéd fern and gentian flower | |
| On thy low margin make their graves: | 40 |
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| And through thy valley’s dusky shade | |
| In ceaseless murmurings, ages long, | |
| Shall mingle with the flowers that fade | |
| Thy endless infancy of song. | |
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| O waters of Pocantico! | 45 |
| Wild rivulet of wood and glen! | |
| May thy glad laughters, sweet and low, | |
| Long, long outlive the sighs of men! | |
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