I.
Rock-sentineled, romantic stream!
Thy waters flow with silvery gleam
Where glassy pools and visions greet
Embosomed in some cool retreat;
Then rippling o'er a pebbly bed,
With current fleet thy course is led
To where, walled in by beetling cliffs,
It plunges o'er the hidden rifts.
II.
Past where the meadows gently sweep
The limpid waters silent creep,
Until, o'erhung with cooling shade,
They lave the shores of sylvan glade,
And many a wild-flower blooming there
Its incense flings upon the air;
And spreading o'er each sloping side
An emerald carpet stretches wide.
III.
Now gliding out, the waters gleam
And sparkle with the sun's warm beam,
Reflecting then some mirrored cloud
Like specter wrapt in filmy shroud--
Till pouring down with fretful whirl
They o'er the mill-dam rush and curl,
And foaming round in eddies deep,
The circles wide and wider creep!
IV.
Oh, by thy wave I've loved to stray
On many a balmy summer's day--
When youth, and hope, and life were sweet--
Thy wooded banks and cliffs to greet!
And often back to days of yore
My fancy strays along thy shore,
And musing thus I fondly dream
I see again thy waters gleam!