Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Leven, the River

Ode to Leven Water

By Tobias George Smollett (1721–1771)

ON Leven’s banks, while free to rove,

And tune the rural pipe to love,

I envied not the happiest swain

That ever trod the Arcadian plain.

Pure stream! in whose transparent wave

My youthful limbs I wont to lave;

No torrents stain thy limpid source,

No rocks impede thy dimpling course,

That sweetly warbles o’er its bed,

With white, round, polished pebbles spread;

While, lightly poised, the scaly brood

In myriads cleave thy crystal flood;

The springing trout in speckled pride,

The salmon, monarch of the tide,

The ruthless pike, intent on war,

The silver eel, and mottled par.

Devolving from thy parent lake,

A charming maze thy waters make,

By bowers of birch, and groves of pine,

And edges flowered with eglantine.

Still on thy banks so gayly green,

May numerous herds and flocks be seen:

And lasses chanting o’er the pail,

And shepherds piping in the dale;

And ancient faith that knows no guile,

And industry embrowned with toil;

And hearts resolved, and hands prepared,

The blessings they enjoy to guard!