Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PASSAIC FALLS, by GEORGE LYNDE CATLIN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PASSAIC FALLS, by                    
First Line: Oh fair passaic! Softly winding
Last Line: To brighter, purer, scenes of bliss.
Subject(s): Rivers; Waterfalls


Oh fair Passaic! softly winding
Through wooded slopes and banks of green,
With all thy loveliness reminding
Of scenes in dreamland's dim demesne.

Full oft along thy grassy border
I've strolled, in admiration lost;
Or watched thy waves in wild disorder
Within yon rocky cavern tossed.

And yet, from that abyss, all surging
With foam and spray and torrent's wrath,
I've seen thee, purified, emerging
To seek anew thy seaward path;

And onward thence, through landscape rarer
Than painter's brush could e'er portray --
No mortal eye hath looked on fairer --
Thou passest on thy peaceful way.

Till in the blue and hazy distance
Thou gleamest like a silver thread.
Oh river! type of man's existence!
In thee, Life's lesson may be read.

Like thine, our griefs and passions mortal
Oft plunge us in some dark abyss,
Through which we, groping, find the portal
To brighter, purer, scenes of bliss.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net