Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
A Potomac Picture
By Elizabeth Akers Allen (18321911)A
The fair Potomac’s tide,
The oarsman pausing for a simple song,
Sung softly at his side;—
All tender souls, and thrills
To sudden youth the hearts of grandmothers,
Among New England’s hills.
Won from the bloomy store
Of forests, lying purple and remote
Along the eastern shore.
Of the fair Capitol,—
White and ethereal as the feathery foam
Fringing the oar-blade’s fall.
Holding its fiery breath,
As loath to mar the peace so sweet and still
By any thought of death.
Disputing all their gloom,
And on the pyramids of cannon-balls
Drops the white chestnut-bloom.
Speak not their thunderous words,—
And in and out among their muzzles skim,
Unscared, the meadow birds.
A sphere of silver white,
While the full moon, above the hill-tops far,
Slow reddens into sight.