Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Western States: Arkansas, the River | | Night on the Arkansas | | Albert Pike (1809–1891) |
| | (Excerpt)
NIGHT comes upon the Arkansas, with long stride. | |
| Its dark and turbid waters roll along, | |
| Bearing wrecked trees and drift, deep, red, and wide; | |
| The heavy forest sleeps on either side, | |
| To the water’s edge low-stooping; and among | 5 |
| The patient stars the moon her lamp has hung, | |
| Fed with the spirit of the buried sun. | |
| No blue waves dance the stream’s dark mass upon, | |
| Glittering like Beauty’s sparkling, starry tears; | |
| No crest of foam, crowning the river dun, | 10 |
| Its misty ridge of frozen light uprears; | |
| One sole relief in the great void appears: | |
| A dark blue ridge, set sharp against the sky, | |
| Beyond the forest’s utmost boundary. * * * * * | | | | |
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