It flows through Virginia hills Beneath the rocks and the ground, And the hush of the woodland it fills With a strangely mysterious sound. Unseen, it rushes along, Through cavernous passages drear, And only its murmur of song Comes muffled and faint to the ear. But that, and one eddying pool, Outreached from the reticent stream, A goblet all crystalline, cool, And sweet as a draught in a dream. Thus, thus, through the hardness and strife, Beneath the weight of our woes, Unseen in our valley of life The River of Happiness flows. But it sings to the listening heart, And the gloomiest shadow of ill With the touch of its song is astart, With the beat of its hope is athrill. And ever some drift of its brim It offers prophetic and free, As it speeds through imprisonments grim To the open and opulent sea! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A VALEDICTION: OF WEEPING by JOHN DONNE A BANJO SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR FRIAR JEROME'S BEAUTIFUL BOOK; A.D. 1200 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO MY READERS by ALEXANDER ANDERSON THE PESSIMIST by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |