And I wonder they do not break its shining mirror.

The boatman glanced along its darkening side,

From the pale water paler with the night,

And in his face I saw a sturdy pride,

An understanding of its strength and height,

Its silences, its storms, its lonely ways:

He who had lived beside it all his days.

He pulled upon his oar and naught he said;

But in his eyes were hills inherited.

*  *  *