OUR RIVER.
Our river, thine and mine;
With what intrepid haste it leaps the falls
Glancing, dancing, whirling, purling, on
Over the gleaming rocks, whose falchions keen
Would rend for aye the glinting canopy
Which spans the flood in rainbow-tinted folds.
Anon the waters lift impulsive arms
Toward yonder sun through bridal veils of mist.
Never is man more moved than when he stands
Gauging the force Omnipotence creates.
SUNSET.
See the cloudlets float to rest,
At the portals of the west;
How they glimmer, how they glance
In a merry sunset dance.
Beautiful and sweet and fair,
As the spirit of a prayer;
With what confidence they lie
On the bosom of the sky.
How they crown the brow of night
With a wreath of ruddy light;
Fair as any flower that blows
In the twilight, pink and rose.
Even so our earthly way,
It will not be always gray;
Soon we, too, shall float to rest—
Past the portals of the west.