Written on the Banks of the Arun

Charlotte Smith

 
When latest autumn spreads her evening veil,
And the gray mists from these dim waves arise,
I love to listen to the hollow sighs
Through the half leafless wood that breathes the gale.
For at such hours the shadowy phantom pale,         
Oft seems to fleet before the poet's eyes;
Strange sounds are heard, and mournful melodies
As of night-wanderers who their woes bewail.
Here by his native stream, at such an hour,
Pity's own Otway I methinks could meet         
And hear his deep sighs swell the saddened wind!
O Melancholy, such thy magic power
That to the soul these dreams are often sweet
And soothe the pensive visionary mind.
 

Further Reading

Poems about Rivers
A Musical Instrument
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A Thought of the Nile
by Leigh Hunt
Afton Water
by Robert Burns
In Passing
by Stanley Plumly
Man in Stream
by Rosanna Warren
Oarlock, Oar (Y, W, V, U, F)
by Katrina Vandenberg
Part of Eve's Discussion
by Marie Howe
Rückenfigur
by Susan Howe
Somewhere between here and Belen
by Jay Wright
South
by Jack Gilbert
Summer Night, Riverside
by Sara Teasdale
The Other Side of the River
by Xi Chuan
The Outlet (162)
by Emily Dickinson
Vague Cadence
by Geoffrey G. O'Brien