Classic Poem

There was a time when rivers were roads,
Boating and sailing were then the modes,
And people conveyed from homely care,
Far and along the Delaware.

Those were days when Jersey was split,
Quaker the western half of it,
Except at Salem New England made
A new New Haven for whales and trade.

The Swedes and Dutch both sprinkled the shores;
Scotch below us of Baltimores;
German sectarians broke the farms
Up the Lehigh and Schuylkill arms.

Some Finns and Welsh cleared the brinks and back:
Refugees out of Accomac;
Huguenot exiles and Danish men—
All had beautiful daughters then.

So, to sail was to find a love
In the inlets below or the coves above.
Cupid was ever minded to go;
Tide and wind were his quiver and bow.

Fishes were provender, cooked on the isles;
River was base for a thousand miles;
Beaver and otter and deer and bear
Sovereigns were of the Delaware.

Up the sources were foaming rills,
Mountain springs winded through the hills,
Moccasins were the only maps,
Salt and saplings the hunter's traps.

Fashions were left to the Indian few,
Squaws were simple and sometimes true,
Drawing a bead on them they fell;
Home-stilled rum made a tribe revel.

So the trader or peddler took
Hearts away in the pack to look,
And to hoodoo the susceptible lass,
Showed her herself in a looking glass.

Glad for my virtue I lived not then!
Would I recall that Eden again?
Nay, Saint Anthony, do not scold!
I am harmless because I'm old.

When the purest the river did fall,
Moonstruck to tides that embraced it all;
Long above them its childhood flowed,
Still, its rapids the only road.

Wind-gap, water-gap, mountain of blue,
Pass we on in our light canoe,
Till the bald eagle sails beneath
And the portage the storm clouds wreathe.

Chief of rivers in that past,
Delaware changes its life the last,
And its elbow bends and loops,
Qadrilateral for our troops.

Here, her passage from Holland paid.
Grateful to God was the peasant maid,
And his image attracted her:
Masterman and redemptioner.

Welded races their broods above
Made the City of Brotherly Love,
Conquered, recovered, O, what spells!
Independence first rang its bells.

Washington in the snow and ice
Crossed it to battle more than thrice,
Persevered till the roses blent
Strewed his path to be President!

River abounding, steady and wide!
Beautiful river, be our pride!
While like white swans from thy slips,
Sail to the ocean thy offspring ships!

Freshen thy cities with thy airs!
Freight thy fleets with thy infinite wares!
Delaware! River of peace and rest!
Cool my heart in thy verdurous breast!