Where th’ Olympian cloth is spread,
There thou’rt cradled, nursed, and bred;
Bursting into life anew,
Thirsting for celestial dew;
Drinking from th’ ambrosial fountain,
Sinking through the veinÈd mountain;
Moving;
Roving;
Gravitating;
Sliding;
Gliding;
Percolating;
Coursing on through channels hidden,
Forcing passages unbidden;
Winding into cave and cell,
Finding out where Naiads dwell;
Spirting out through crack and chink,
Flirting on each flower-clad brink;
Creeping over banks and bosses,
Weeping with the moist-eyed mosses;
Straying on midst foliage fair,
Playing with sweet maiden hair;
Rippling through enchanted grots;
Tippling with forget-me-nots,
Swelling into pools translucent,
Welling over, wild, recusant!
Dashing;
Flushing;
Splashing;
Gushing;
Whirling;
Eddying;
Swirling;
Rushing;
Spreading out upon the plain,
Threading on thy course again;
Flowing brook-like through the wood,
Growing to a larger flood;
Fertilising, fructifying,
Man’s and Nature’s needs supplying;
Gliding down time’s silent river;
To the ocean of For Ever.