Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BOAT-HORN, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BOAT-HORN, by                    
First Line: "oh, list the boat-horn's wild refrain"
Last Line: The romance of my native land
Subject(s): Memory;patriotism


OH, list the boat-horn's wild refrain,
O'er eve's still waters stealing clear!
So softly sweet, so sad a strain
Ne'er woke before to charm the ear.
From out the past it brings once more,
As waking echoes of a dream,
The tree-clad hills, the isles and shore,
Of wild Ohio's winding stream.

Out on the wave while sweeping down
The boatman trod his little deck,
And dreamed, while lay his all around,
Of strange adventure, storm, and wreck.
That strain he wound his way to cheer
In dewy eve and golden morn;
The startled Indian paused to hear,
In echoes sweet, that simple horn.

He came, rough courier of the men,
The thronging thousands pressing on,
With axes ringing in the glen,
And camps the gleaming hills upon.
Gone are the forests, gone the race,
The dusky shadows of the shore;
The hum of busy life keeps pace
To music of the steamer's roar.

O boatman, wind thy horn again,
The simple music of the heart;
What memories live along its strain,
And into being softly start!
The wood-crowned hills, the isles, the stream,
In sweetest musings wide expand;
I see as in a summer's dream
The romance of my native land.





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