Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RIVER by ARTHUR GUITERMAN

First Line: WHAT MAY THE GRAY GULL KNOW
Last Line: THAT GLIDE ON THE SABLE STREAM.
Subject(s): NEW YORK CITY - COLONIAL PERIOD; NIGHT; RIVERS; BEDTIME;
@3What may the gray gull know
Ere the rolling sun is high
Of the wakened world below
His road in the winnowed sky?

The song of the crowded streets,
The throng of the wharf and quay,
The tryst of ships where the river meets
The burst of the gladdened sea.

Where the smoke-wreaths lift and melt,
Where the mainsail flaps and fills,
And Hudson heaves like a wampum belt
On the breast of the strong, red hills.

What may the nighthawk view
As the great wings cleave their way
Through the gemmed arc's deeper blue
To the haunt of his midnight prey?

The fairy lamps that show
On masthead, shrouds, and spars;
The million lights of the town that glow
Like a bank of welded stars;

And the flare of red abaft,
And the flash of the green abeam,
And the glow-worm glare of the dragon craft
That glide on the sable stream.@1



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