Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 270=348.= the Past and the Present
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From that lone lake, the sweetest of the chain, That links the mountain to the mighty main, Fresh from the rock and swelling by the tree, Rushing to meet, and dare, and breast the sea— Fair, noble, glorious river! in thy wave The sunniest slopes and sweetest pastures lave; The mountain torrent, with its wintry roar, Springs from its home and leaps upon thy shore: The promontories love thee—and for this Turn their rough cheeks, and stay thee for thy kiss.
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Dark as the forest leaves that strew the ground, The Indian hunter here his shelter found; Here cut his bow and shaped his arrows true, Here built his wigwam and his bark canoe, Speared the quick salmon leaping up the fall, And slew the deer without the rifle-ball.
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What Art can execute, or Taste devise, Decks thy fair course and gladdens in thine eyes— As broader sweep the bendings of thy stream, To meet the southern sun's more constant beam. Here cities rise, and sea-washed commerce hails Thy shores and winds with all her flapping sails, From Tropic isles, or from the torrid main— Where grows the grape, or sprouts the sugar-cane— Or from the haunts where the striped haddock play, By each cold northern bank and frozen bay. Here, safe returned from every stormy sea, Waves the striped flag, the mantle of the free— That star-lit flag, by all the breezes curled Of yon vast deep whose waters grasp the world.
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=Robert C. Sands, 1799-1832.= (Manual, p. 504.)
From "Weehawken."