River! River! rapid River!

Swifter now you slip away;

Swift and silent as an arrow,
Through a channel dark and narrow,
Like life's Closing Day.

River! River! headlong River !
Down you dash into the sea;
Sea, that line hath never sounded,
Sea, that voyage hath never rounded,
Like Eternity!

ANONYMOUS.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver :
But not by thee my steps shall be,
Forever and forever.

ALFRED TENNYSON.

Yes! where are the cities

Of Thebes and of Tyre?—
Swept from the nations,

Like sparks from the fire
The glory of Athens,

The splendor of Rome,
Dissolved-and forever-
Like dew in thy foam !

But thou art almighty-
Eternal-sublime—
Unweakened-unwasted-

Twin-brother of Time!
Fleets, tempests, nor nations
Thy glory can bow;

As the stars first beheld thee,
Still chainless art thou!

But hold! when thy surges
No longer shall roll,
And that firmament's length

Is drawn back like a scroll;
Then-then shall the spirit
That sighs by thee now,
Be more mighty, more lasting,
More chainless than thou!

JOHN AUGUSTU 3 SHEA.

The Beautiful River.

LIKE a foundling in slumber, the summer-day lay
On the crimsoning threshold of Even,

And I thought that the glow through the azure-arched way
Was a glimpse of the coming of Heaven.

THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER.

There together we sat by the beautiful stream;

We had nothing to do but to love and to dream,

In the days that have gone on before.

21

These are not the same days, though they bear the same

name,

With the ones I shall welcome no more.

But it may be that angels are calling them o'er,

For a Sabbath and summer forever,

When the years shall forget the Decembers they wore,
And the shroud shall be woven, no never!

In a twilight like that, Jennie June for a bride,

Oh! what more of the world could one wish for beside,
As we gazed on the river unrolled,

Till we heard, or we fancied its musical tide,

When it flowed through the gateway of gold!

"Jennie June," then I said, “let us linger no morc
On the banks of the beautiful river;

Let the boat be unmoored, and be muffled the oar,
And we'll steal into heaven together.

If the angel on duty our coming descries,

You have nothing to do but throw off the disguise
That you wore while you wandered with me,
And the sentry shall say, 'Welcome back to the skies,
We long have been waiting for thee.'

Oh! how sweetly she spoke, ere she uttered a word,
With that blush, partly hers, partly Even's,
And a tone, like the dream of a song we once heard,
As she whispered, "This way is not heaven's:
For the River that runs by the realm of the blest,
Has no song on its rippie, no star on its breast;
Oh! that river is nothing like this,

For it glides on in shadow beyond the world's west,
Till it breaks into beauty and bliss."

I am lingering yet, but I linger alone,

On the banks of the beautiful river;

'Tis the twin of that day, but the wave where it shone Bears the willow-tree's shadow forever.

BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR.

Rhymes of the River.

River far-flowing,

How broad thou art growing!

And the sentinel headlands wait grimly for thee;

And Euroclydon urges

The bold-riding surges

That in white-crested lines gallop in from the sea !

O bright-hearted river,
With crystalline quiver,

Like a sword from its scabbard, far-flashing abroad !
And I think, as I gaze

On the tremulous blaze,

That thou surely wert drawn by an angel of God!

Through the black heart of night,
Leaping out to the light,

Thou art reeking with sunset, and dyed with the dawn;
Cleft the emerald sod-

Cleft the mountains of God

And the shadows of roses yet rusted thereon!

Where willows are weeping,

Where shadows are sleeping,

Where the frown of the mountain lies dark on thy crest; Arcturus now shining,

Arbutus now twining,

And my castles in Spain" gleaming down in thy breast;