Classic Poem

There was too much water in the river
For the beauty of the falls,
And even the banks were less interesting than in winter.
Nature had entirely got the better
In her struggles against the giants
Who first cast the mould of these works;
For indeed it is a place
That did not in winter
Remind one of God,
But one could not help feeling
As if there had been the agency
Of some " mortal instruments "
Which Nature had been struggling against
Without making a perfect conquest.
There was something so wild
And new in this feeling,
Knowing, as we did, in the inner man,
That God alone
Had laid His hand upon it,
I could not help regretting
The want of it.