Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LAKE SUPERIOR, by SAMUEL GRISWOLD GOODRICH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LAKE SUPERIOR, by                    
First Line: Father of lakes!' thy waters bend
Last Line: Deems as a bubble all your waves!
Alternate Author Name(s): Parley, Peter
Subject(s): Great Lakes


"FATHER of lakes!" thy waters bend
Beyond the eagle's utmost view,
When, throned in heaven, he sees thee send
Back to the sky its world of blue.

Boundless and deep, the forests weave
Their twilight shade thy borders o'er,
And threatening cliffs, like giants, heave
Their rugged forms along thy shore.

Pale silence, mid thy hollow caves,
With listening ear, in sadness broods;
Or startled echo, o'er thy waves,
Sends the hoarse wolf-notes of thy woods.

Nor can the light canoes, that glide
Across thy breast like things of air,
Chase from thy lone and level tide
The spell of stillness deepening there.

Yet round this waste of wood and wave,
Unheard, unseen, a spirit lives,
That, breathing o'er each rock and cave,
To all a wild, strange aspect gives.

The thunder-riven oak, that flings
Its grisly arms athwart the sky,
A sudden, startling image brings
To the lone traveller's kindled eye.

The gnarled and braided boughs, that show
Their dim forms in the forest shade,
Like wrestling serpents seem, and throw
Fantastic horrors through the glade.

The very echoes round this shore
Have caught a strange and gibbering tone;
For they have told the war-whoop o'er,
Till the wild chorus is their own.

Wave of the wilderness, adieu!
Adieu, ye rocks, ye wilds, ye woods!
Roll on, thou element of blue,
And fill these awful solitudes!

Thou hast no tale to tell of man;
God is thy theme. Ye sounding caves,
Whisper of him whose mighty plan
Deems as a bubble all your waves!





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