The Queen of Rivers

Lost in a pleasing wild surprise,

I mark the fountains round me rise

And in an artless current flow

Thro' dark and lofty woods below,

That from the world the soul confine

And raise the thoughts to things divine.

O sacred stream! a stranger, I

Would stay to see thee passing by,

And mark thee wandering thus alone,

With varied turns so like my own!

Wild, as a stranger led astray,

I see thee wind in woods away,

And hasting thro' the trees to glide,

As if thy gentle face to hide,

While oft in vain thou wouldst return

To visit here thy native urn;

But, like an exile doomed no more

To see the scenes he loved before,

You wander on, and wind in vain,

Dispersed amid the boundless main.

Here often, on thy borders green,

Perhaps thy native sons were seen,

Ere slaves were made, or gold was known,

Or children from another zone

Inglorious did with axes rude

Into thy noble groves intrude,

And forced thy naked son to flee

To woods where he might still be free.

And thou! that art my present theme,

O gentle spirit of the stream!

Then too, perhaps, to thee was given

A name among the race of heaven;

And oft adored by Nature's child

Whene'er he wandered in the wild.

And oft perhaps, beside the flood

In darkness of the grove he stood,

Invoking here thy friendly aid

To guide him thro' the doubtful shade;

Till overhead the moon in view

Thro' heaven's blue fields the chariot drew,

And showed him all thy wat'ry face,

Reflected with a purer grace,

Thy many turnings thro' the trees

Thy bitter journey to the seas;

While oft thy murmurs loud and long

Awaked his melancholy song;

Which this in simple strain began,

"Thou Queen of Rivers, Raritan."

- John Davis,  1806