| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Night on the River | | By E. Merrill Root |
| | | THIS is our world: a dark stream murmuring; | |
| Sly hordes of shadows out of every brake; | |
| Sky-fallen gold-fish stars that float or shake | |
| In mirrored nets these wizard maples fling; | |
| My oars, that dip like some light swallow’s wing; | 5 |
| Fire-flies, like sparks that the wind fans awake; | |
| And moments like the bubbles that we make, | |
| Like the frail foam that marks our voyaging! | |
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| Love, let us drift—what matter when or where? | |
| Are not the stars, the dusk, the whispering stream, | 10 |
| Far whippoorwills, our boat, and we, a dream | |
| In some mad mind? And do not all streams bear | |
| Themselves and all they hold to one vast sea— | |
| The waste wan waters of Eternity? | | | | |
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