Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Lake Wyalusing
By William Henry Cuyler Hosmer (18141877)J
While looking on its basin round,
That fancy named a sparkling bowl
By hoop of fadeless emerald bound,
From which boon Nature’s holy hand
Baptized the nymphs of mountain land.
And glitters in the sunset ray,
When brooks that run far, far below
Have murmured out farewell to day;
The moonlight on its placid breast,
When dark the valley, loves to rest.
The feathered king a war-scream gave;
His form, with pinion wide outspread,
Was traced so clearly on the wave,
That seemingly its glass was stirred
By flappings of the gallant bird.
With the soft moss of ages lined,
And seated there a row of elves
By moonlight would the poet find:
Fairies, from slumber in the shade
Waking with soft-voiced serenade.
Encircled by a zone of green:
The reflex of some purer world
Within their radiant blue was seen,—
I felt, while musing on the shore,
As if strong wings my soul upbore.
Thought pictures thee some diamond bright,—
That dawn had welcomed,—fallen down
From the starred canopy of night;
Or chrysolite, by thunder rent
From Heaven’s eternal battlement.