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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  To the River Awe

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

Awe, the River

To the River Awe

By James Cochrane

O STREAM, that flows from Awe’s isle-studded lake,

Whose heathery mountains high their summits rear,

How rapid is thy current, and how clear!

And what sweet murmurings thy pure waters make,

As if they were lamenting to forsake

Their granite urn, with precipices sheer

Begirt, from whose high peaks the antlered deer

Look down, and eagles the far echoes wake.

No sluggish streams their turbid tribute bring

To thy pure tide, and all in vain man tries

To stain thy bosom with impurities;

These thou with indignation off dost fling,

Reaching thy goal as pure as at thy source.

Ah, sparkling stream, that such were my own course!