Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The Willewemoc in Summer
By Alfred Billings Street (1811–1881)B
So fringed with fern, the woodcock’s bill
Scarce penetrates the leafy screen,
Leaps into life the infant rill.
Oozing along, a winding streak,
O’er moss and grass, it whispers meek,
Then swelling o’er some barrier root
The tiny ripples onward shoot,
Then the clear sparkling waters spread
And deepen down their sloping bed,
Until, a streamlet bright and strong,
The Willewemoc glides along
Through its wild forest depths, to bear
Its homage to the Delaware.
Just bathes his crossing hoof, and now
Broad hollowed creeks, that, deep and clear,
Would whelm him to his antlered brow.
Here, the smooth silver sleeps so still,
The ear might catch the faintest trill;
The bee’s low hum, the whir of wings,
And the sweet songs of grass-hid things.
There, dashing by, in booming shocks,
So loud their wrath the waters wreak,
Mid floating trees and scattered rocks,
They drown the fierce gray eagle’s shriek.
Here, the slight cowslip from the moss
In ripples breaks the amber gloss;
There, the whirled spray-showers upward fly
To the slant firs crag-rooted high.
Beguile my steps this summer day,
Beside the lone and lovely stream,
And through its sylvan scenes to stray:
The moss, too delicate and soft
To bear the tripping bird aloft,
Slopes its green velvet to the sedge,
Tufting the mirrored water’s edge,
Where the slow eddies wrinkling creep
Mid swaying grass in stillness deep:
The sweet wind scarce has breath to turn
The edges of the leaves, or stir
The fragile wreath of gossamer
Embroidered on yon clump of fern.
The stream incessant greets my ear
In hollow dashings, full round tones,
Purling through alder branches here,
There gurgling o’er the tinkling stones;
The rumble of the waterfall
Majestic sounding over all.
Pictured with tree-shapes black and cool;
Here, the roofed water seems to be
A solid mass of ebony;
There, the broad surface glances bright
In dazzling gleams of spangled light,
Now the quick darting waterfly
Ploughs its light furrow, skimming by,
While circling o’er in mazy rings
The chirping swallow dips his wings;
Relieved against yon sunny glare
The gnat-swarms, dust-like, speck the air;
From yon deep cove where lily-gems
Are floating by their silken stems,
Out glides the dipping duck, to seek
The narrow windings of the creek,
The glitterings of his purple back
Disclosing far his sinuous track;
Now, sliding down yon grassy brink,
I see the otter plunge and sink,
Yon bubbling streak betrays his rise,
And through the furrowing sheet he plies.
Damp with the shower the west-wind comes;
Rustling in heaps the quivering grass,
It darkening dots the streamlet’s glass,
And rises with the herald-breeze
The cloud’s dark umber o’er the trees;
A veil of gauze-like mist it flings,
Dimples the stream with transient rings,
And soon beneath this tent-like tree
The swift, bright glancing streaks I see,
And hear around in murmuring strain
The gentle music of the rain.
Then bursts the sunshine warm and gay,
The misty curtain melts away,
The cloud in fragments breaks, and through
Trembles in spots the smiling blue;
A fresh, damp sweetness fills the scene,
From dripping leaf and moistened earth,
The odor of the wintergreen
Floats on the airs that now have birth;
Dashes and air-bells all about
Proclaim the gambols of the trout,
And calling bush and answering tree
Echo with woodland melody.
Now the piled west in pomp displays
The radiant forms that sunset weaves;
And slanting lines of golden haze
Are streaming through the sparkling leaves.
A clear, sweet, joyous strain is heard,—
It is the minstrel mocking-bird.
The strain of every songster floats
Within his rich and splendid notes;
The bluebird’s warble, brief and shrill;
The wailing of the whippoorwill;
The robin’s call, the jay’s harsh screech,
His own sweet music heard through each.
His three-toned anthem now he sings,
Liquid and low and soft it rings;
Then rising with a swell more clear,
It melts upon the bending ear,
Till with a piercing, flourished flight,
He bids the darkening scene good night.