Last Songs from Vagabondia

by Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey

 

UNDER THE ROWANS

 
I SAW a little river
Running beside a wall,
And over it hung scarlet
The berried rowans tall.

Beside it for a moment
5
The summer-time delayed;
And cooler fell the sunlight
Through centuries of shade.

And there was laughing Bronwen
A-wading to the knee.
10
While still the foolish water
Went racing to the sea.

I whistled, "Love, come over!"
She was too wild to fear
The wildness of the forest,
15
The ruin of the year.

And when the stars above us
Hung in the rowans high,
It was the little river
That made our lullaby.
20

Indoors, to-night, and fire-dreams!
And where I wander, far
Within a shining country
That needs no calendar,

There is a little river
25
Running beside a wall,
And over it hang scarlet
The berried rowans tall.