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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE RIVER IN THE MEADOWS by LEONIE ADAMS

Poet Analysis

First Line: CRYSTAL PARTING THE MEADS
Last Line: OR THE BOSOM IT DWELT IN, STONE.
Subject(s): RIVERS;

Crystal parting the meads.
A boat drifted up it like a swan.
Tranquil, lovely, its bright front to the waters,
A slow swan is gone.

Full waters, O flowing silver,
Pure, level with the clover,
It will stain drowning a star,
With the moon it will brim over.

Running through lands dewy and shorn,
Cattle stoop at its brink,
And every fawny-colored throat
Will sway its bells and drink.

I saw a boat sailing the river
With a tranced gait. It seemed
Loosed by a spell from its moorings,
Or a thing the helmsman dreamed.

They said it would carry no traveler,
But the vessel would go down,
If a heart were heavy-winged,
Or the bosom it dwelt in, stone.



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