spheréd silence Around the long worn walls of granite gorges; Storming through chasms; And flowing for miles in quiet over the Titan basin To the muddled waters of the mighty river, Himself obeying the call of the gulf, And the unfathomed urge of the sea!  

  

  

      Waters of mountain peaks, Spirits of liberty Leaving your pure retreats For work in the world. Soiling your crystal springs With the waste that is whirled to your breast as you run, Until you are foul as the crawling leviathan      That devours you, And uses you to carry waste and earth For the making of land at the gulf, For the conquest of land for the feet of men.  

  

  

      De Soto, Marquette and La Salle Planting your cross in vain, Gaining neither gold nor ivory, Nor tribute For France or Spain. Making land alone For liberty! You could proclaim in the name of the cross The dominion of kings over a world that was new. But the river has altered its course:      There are fertile fields For a thousand miles where the river flowed that you knew. And there are liberty and democracy For thousands of miles Where in the name of kings, and for the cross You tramped the tangles for treasure.  

  

  

      The Falls of St. Anthony tumble the waters In laughter and tumult and roaring of voices, Swirling, dancing, leaping, foaming, Spirits of caverns, of canyons and gorges:      Waters tinctured by star-lights, sweetened by breezes Blown over snows, out of the rosy northlands, Through forests of pine and hemlock,      Whisperings of the Pacific grown symphonic. Voices of freedom, restless, unconquered, Mad with divinity, fearless and free:—      Hunters and choppers, warriors, revelers, Laughers, dancers, fiddlers, freemen, Climbing the crests of the Alleghenies, Singing, chopping, hunting, fighting Erupting into Kentucky and Tennessee, Into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Sweeping away the waste of the Indians, As the river carries mud for the making of land. And taking the land of Illinois from kings And handing its allegiance to the Republic. What riflemen with Daniel Boone for leader, And conquerors with Clark for captain Plunge down 

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