Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The River Tallulah
By William J. Grayson (17881863)B
A mountain rent by Nature’s throes,
Where, roaring down the rocky glen,
The stormy torrent falls or flows;
Its waters now a quiet stream,
Now plunging from the giddy steep,
Down rapids now they foam and gleam,
In gloomy pools unfathomed sleep;
From the rent rock you gaze below,
The heart with awe and terror stirred,
You hardly see the torrent flow,
Its fearful voice is faintly heard;
Half down, the hovering crow appears
A moving speck; from rifted beams
Of granite grown, the pine, that rears
Its towering trunk, a sapling seems.
More soft and still, invites your sight;
Beneath your feet, a sea of green
Fills the charmed heart with new delight;
Down from the mountain top you gaze;
Far, deep below, the verdant maze
Of forest still unbroken lies;
And farther yet, a line of blue
Catches at last the gazer’s view,
The ocean seems to meet his eyes;
With ecstasy beyond control
He sees, while Fancy’s magic power
With witching influence rules the hour,
The surges break, the billows roll.