372 The Future Poetry
The River^4
Wild river in thy cataract far-rumoured and rash rapids to sea
hasting,
Far now is that birth-place mid abrupt mountains and slow
dreaming of lone valleys
Where only with blue heavens was rapt converse or green
orchards with fruit leaning
Stood imaged in thy waves and, content, listened to thy
rhapsody’s long murmur.
Vast now in a wide press and a dense hurry and mass
movement of thronged waters
Loud-thundering, fast-galloping, might, speed is the stern
message of thy spirit,
Proud violence, stark claim and the dire cry of the heart’s
hunger on God’s barriers
Self-hurled, and a void lust of unknown distance, and pace
reckless and free grandeur.
Calm yet shall release thee; an immense peace and a large
streaming of white silence,
Broad plains shall be thine, greenness surround thee, and
wharved cities and life’s labour
Long thou wilt befriend, human delight help with the waves’
coolness, with ships’ furrows
Thrill, — last become, self losing, a sea-motion and joy
boundless and blue laughter.
(^4) Ionic a majore pentameter catalectic. In one place an epitrite replaces the ionic.