A River Scene

Lyrics

The river swelleth more and more, Like some sweet influence stealing o'er The passive town; and for a while Each tussock makes a tiny isle, Where, on some friendly Ararat, Resteth the weary water-rat. No ripple shows Musketaquid, Her very current e'en is hid, As deepest souls do calmest rest, When thoughts are swelling in the breast, And she that in thе summer's drought Doth make a rippling and a rout, Sleeps from Nahshawtuck to the Cliff, Unrufflеd by a single skiff. But by a thousand distant hills The louder roar a thousand rills, And many a spring which now is dumb, And many a stream with smothered hum, Doth swifter well and faster glide, Though buried deep beneath the tide. Our village shows a rural Venice, Its broad lagoons where yonder fen is; As lovely as the Bay of Naples Yon placid cove amid the maples; And in my neighbour's field of corn I recognise the Golden Horn. Here Nature taught from year to year, When only red men came to hear; Methinks 'twas in this school of art Venice and Naples learned their part, But still their mistress, to my mind, Her young disciples leaves behind.