Poem: “To The River Arve” by William Cullen Bryant

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American Literature – American Poetry – William Cullen Bryant – Poems from William Cullen Bryant
< < < Innocent child and snow-white flower
To Cole, The Painter, Departing For Europe > > >

To The River Arve

SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN AT A HAMLET
NEAR THE FOOT OF MONT BLANC.

Not from the sands or cloven rocks,
    Thou rapid Arve! thy waters flow;
Nor earth, within her bosom, locks
    Thy dark unfathomed wells below.
Thy springs are in the cloud, thy stream
    Begins to move and murmur first
Where ice-peaks feel the noonday beam,
    Or rain-storms on the glacier burst.

Born where the thunder and the blast,
    And morning’s earliest light are born,
Thou rushest swoln, and loud, and fast,
    By these low homes, as if in scorn:
Yet humbler springs yield purer waves;
    And brighter, glassier streams than thine,
Sent up from earth’s unlighted caves,
    With heaven’s own beam and image shine.

Yet stay; for here are flowers and trees;
    Warm rays on cottage roofs are here,
And laugh of girls, and hum of bees—
    Here linger till thy waves are clear.
Thou heedest not—thou hastest on;
    From steep to steep thy torrent falls,
Till, mingling with the mighty Rhone,
    It rests beneath Geneva’s walls.

Rush on—but were there one with me
    That loved me, I would light my hearth
Here, where with God’s own majesty
    Are touched the features of the earth.
By these old peaks, white, high, and vast,
    Still rising as the tempests beat,
Here would I dwell, and sleep, at last,
    Among the blossoms at their feet.

< < < Innocent child and snow-white flower
To Cole, The Painter, Departing For Europe > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – William Cullen Bryant – Poems from William Cullen Bryant

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To The River Arve

SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN AT A HAMLETNEAR THE FOOT OF MONT BLANC.

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SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN AT A HAMLET
NEAR THE FOOT OF MONT BLANC.