| Night on the River (1920) by |
| from Poetry, July 1920 |
River at night. Photo by Silveryhawk. Courtesy GoodFon.su.
Night on the River[]
This is our world: a dark stream murmuring;
Sly hordes of shadows out of every brake;
Sky-fallen gold-fish stars that float or shake
In mirrored nets these wizard maples fling;
My oars, that dip like some light swallow’s wing;
Fire-flies, like sparks that the wind fans awake;
And moments like the bubbles that we make,
Like the frail foam that marks our voyaging!
Love, let us drift — what matter when or where?
Are not the stars, the dusk, the whispering stream,
Far whippoorwills, our boat, and we, a dream
In some mad mind? And do not all streams bear
Themselves and all they hold to one vast sea —
The waste wan waters of Eternity?
This poem is in the public domain