Minnesota. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894). Introductory to Western States. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Introductory to Western States

Minnesota

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894)


The Minnesota Water-shed BEHOLD the rocky wall
That down its sloping sides
Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as they fall,
In rushing river-tides!

Yon stream, whose sources run	5
Turned by a pebble’s edge,
Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun
Through the cleft mountain-ledge.

The slender rill had strayed,
But for the slanting stone,	10
To evening’s ocean, with the tangled braid
Of foam-flecked Oregon.

So from the heights of Will
Life’s parting stream descends,
And, as a moment turns its slender rill,	15
Each widening torrent bends,—

From the same cradle’s side,
From the same mother’s knee,—
One to long darkness and the frozen tide,
One to the Peaceful Sea!	20