[THE RHYME OF THE GREAT RIVER.]
PART I.
Rhyme on, rhyme on in reedy flow,
O river, rhymer ever sweet!
The story of thy land is meet,
The stars stand listening to know.
Rhyme on, O river of the earth!
Gray father of the dreadful seas,
Rhyme on! the world upon its knees
Shall yet invoke thy wealth and worth.
Rhyme on, the reed is at thy mouth,
O kingly minstrel, mighty stream!
Thy Crescent City, like a dream,
Hangs in the heaven of my South.
Rhyme on, rhyme on! these broken strings
Sing sweetest in this warm south wind;
I sit thy willow banks and bind
A broken harp that fitful sings.
I.
And where is my city, sweet blossom-sown town?
And what is her glory, and what has she done?
By the Mexican seas in the path of the sun
Sit you down: in the crescent of seas sit you down.
Ay, glory enough by my Mexican seas!
Ay, story enough in that battle-torn town,
Hidden down in the crescent of seas, hidden down
’Mid mantle and sheen of magnolia-strown trees.
But mine is the story of souls; of a soul
That bartered God’s limitless kingdom for gold,—
Sold stars and all space for a thing he could hold
In his palm for a day, ere he hid with the mole.
O father of waters! O river so vast!
So deep, so strong, and so wondrous wild,—
He embraces the land as he rushes past,
Like a savage father embracing his child.