On thy lov'd banks, sweet river, free From worldly care and vanity, I could my every hour confine, And think true happiness was mine. Sweet river, in thy gentle stream Myriads of finny beings swim: The watchful trout, with speckled hide; The perch, the dace in silvered pride; The princely salmon, sturgeon brave, And lamprey, emblem of the knave. Beneath thy banks, thy shades among, The muses, mistresses of song, Delight to sit, to tune the lyre, And fan the heav'n-descended fire. Happiest of all the happy swains Are those who till thy fertile plains; With freedom, peace and plenty crown'd, They see the varying year go round. But, more than all, there Fanny dwells, For whom, departing from their cells, The muses wreaths of laurel twine, And bind around her brows divine; For whom the dryads of the woods, For whom the nereides of the floods, Those as for Dian fam'd of old, These as for Thetis reverence hold; With whom, if I could live and die, With joy I'd live, and die with joy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODES I, 5 by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS I DREAM I'M LEAVING by MARGARET AHO PSALM 2; DONE AUGUST 8, 1653 - TERZETTI by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE A MEMORY by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE LORD EXMOUTH'S VICTORY AT ALGIERS, 1816 by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD THE COY, SELECTION by WILLIAM BROOME |