On some deep rough-coasted river,

And the plangent waters come,

Amber-hued and streaked with foam;

Where beneath the sunburnt hills

All day long the crowded mills

With remorseless champ and scream

Overlord the sluicing stream,

[50]

And the rapids' iron roar

Hammers at the forest's core;

Where corded rafts creep slowly on,

Glittering in the noonday sun,

And the tawny river-dogs,

Shepherding the branded logs,

Bind and heave with cadenced cry;

Where the blackened tugs go by,

Panting hard and straining slow,

Laboring at the weighty tow,

Flat-nosed barges all in trim,

Creeping in long cumbrous line,

 Prev. P 60/70 next