Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The Pocantico
By Stephen Henry Thayer (18391919)W
Stray rivulet of wood and glen!
Thy murmuring laughters, soft and low,
Elude the alien ears of men.
The fleeting wings of commerce glide;
Hid in thy sylvan haunts alone
The nymphs of fairy-land abide.
Scarce mirrors in thy crystal sheen;
The lover draws his tenderest sigh
Far in thy shadowy dells unseen.
The huntsman, heedless, loves to roam;
The poet dreams his fondest dream
Within thy solitary home.
For on thy sloping ’bankments stand
Such gnarléd sentinels as boast
A lineage aged as the land.
To rob thee of thy ancient shade,
Thy mimic cliffs have long withstood
The furrowing plough and vassal spade.
Through thy lone forest, liquid clear,
Whose answering echoes, far remote,
Fling back a dim and plaintive cheer.
Or sense-enrapturing voice is heard
To match thy melodies, or sing
A challenge to thy minstrel bird.
The quiet mosses on the stone
Weave o’er its silent, flinty breast
An emerald softness all their own.
Lie mutely, lulled by babbling waves;
The fringéd fern and gentian flower
On thy low margin make their graves:
In ceaseless murmurings, ages long,
Shall mingle with the flowers that fade
Thy endless infancy of song.
Wild rivulet of wood and glen!
May thy glad laughters, sweet and low,
Long, long outlive the sighs of men!