Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79.

Switzerland: Rhine, the River

The Brook Rhine

By Augusta Webster (1837–1894)

SMALL current of the wilds afar from men,

Changing and sudden as a baby’s mood;

Now a green babbling rivulet in the wood,

Now loitering broad and shallow through the glen,

Or threading mid the naked shoals, and then

Battling against the stones, half mist, half flood,

Betwixt the mountains where the storm-clouds brood;

And each change but to wake or sleep again;

Pass on, young stream, the world has need of thee:

Far hence a mighty river on its breast

Bears the deep-laden vessels to the sea,

Far hence wide waters feed the vines and corn:

Pass on, small stream, to so great purpose born,

On to the distant toil, the distant rest.