DELECTATIO PISCATORIA.
Reading edition
THE UPPER KENNEBEC.
From the great mere set round with sunbright mountains Full born the river leaps, Dashing the crystal of a thousand fountains Down its romantic steeps.
'Tis now a torrent whose untamed endeavor Is eager for the sea, Angry that rock or reef should hinder ever Its frantic liberty.
Then, for a space, a lake and river blended, It sleeps with tranquil breast, As if its haste and rage at last were ended, And all it sought was rest.
In spicy woodpaths by its rapids straying, I hear, with lingering feet, Its liquid organ and the treetops playing Te Deums strangely sweet.
I break the covert: pictured far emerges On the enraptured sight The arrowy flow, green isles, a cascade's surges, Foam-flaked in rosy light,
Still pools, and purples of the sleepy sedges, The skyward forest-wall, Old sorrowing pines and hazy mountain-ledges, And soft blue over all.
O golden hours of summer's precious leisure! From care and toil apart Fresh drawn, I taste the angler's gentle pleasure With friend of equal heart.
Trout leap and glitter, and the wild duck flutters Where beds of lilies blow: A loon his long, weird lamentation utters, And Echo feels his woe.
We see in hemlock shade the reedy shallow, Where, screened by dusky leaves, The guileless moose comes down to browse and wallow On still balsamic eves.
The great blue heron starts as if we sought her, On pinions of surprise, And to our lure the darlings of the water In pink and crimson rise.
Still gliding on, how throng the sweet romances Of Youth's enchanted land! A lordly eagle, as our bark advances, Glares on us, sad and grand.
Onward we float where mellow sunset glory Streams o'er the lakelet's breast, And every ripple tells a golden story Of the transfigured west.
Onward, into the evening's calm and beauty, To camp and sleep we go: Thrice bless'd are lives, in tasks of love and duty, That end in such a glow! —HORATIO NELSON POWERS.