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| RIVER! that in silence windest | |
| Through the meadows, bright and free, | |
| Till at length thy rest thou findest | |
| In the bosom of the sea! | |
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| Four long years of mingled feeling, | 5 |
| Half in rest, and half in strife, | |
| I have seen thy waters stealing | |
| Onward, like the stream of life. | |
| |
| Thou hast taught me, Silent River! | |
| Many a lesson, deep and long; | 10 |
| Thou hast been a generous giver; | |
| I can give thee but a song. | |
| |
| Oft in sadness and in illness, | |
| I have watched thy current glide, | |
| Till the beauty of its stillness | 15 |
| Overflowed me, like a tide. | |
| |
| And in better hours and brighter, | |
| When I saw thy waters gleam, | |
| I have felt my heart beat lighter, | |
| And leap onward with thy stream. | 20 |
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| Not for this alone I love thee, | |
| Nor because thy waves of blue | |
| From celestial seas above thee | |
| Take their own celestial hue. | |
| |
| Where yon shadowy woodlands hide thee, | 25 |
| And thy waters disappear, | |
| Friends I love have dwelt beside thee, | |
| And have made thy margin dear. | |
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| More than this;—thy name reminds me | |
| Of three friends, all true and tried; | 30 |
| And that name, like magic, binds me | |
| Closer, closer to thy side. | |
| |
| Friends my soul with joy remembers! | |
| How like quivering flames they start, | |
| When I fan the living embers | 35 |
| On the hearth-stone of my heart! | |
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| ’T is for this, thou Silent River! | |
| That my spirit leans to thee; | |
| Thou hast been a generous giver, | |
| Take this idle song from me. | 40 |
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