Our rapid bark, ere twice the day
Had shone upon its downward way,
Turn'd its light prow, in upward course,
To stem the Michi-sipi's force--
Where her broad wave rolls on amain,
Sever'd by thousand isles' in twain,
And giant cliffs, with theatening frown,
Conduct her prison'd current down.
Full many a stream, on either side,
Through the cleft walls sends forth its tide,
Descending far from distant plains,
Where in its gloom the Prairie reigns,
Seated in grandeur on its throne
Amid a desert world alone.
Oft up the steeps, by rugged path
Sloped by the winter torrent's wrath,
We toil'd, where high the sumach hung,
And tendral vines around it clung,
Checking our way with woven bowers,
Or twining over head their flowers;
While higher still, in dizzier break,
The trembling aspen tree would shake-
And oft the wand'ring eye would meet
With sparkling crystals 'neath the feet,
Rudely enchased on some dark stone
Shining with lustre not its own
Hard the ascent, but fair the sight
That spread beneath the lofty height,
Where river, isles, and meadows drew
Their varied pictures to the view,-
Or would the downward eye forbear
To dwell on scene so soft and fair,
'T was but to raise a level glance
And all was rude and bold at once,
Where the dark Bluffs, half bare, half crown'd,
Arose in gloomy sternness 'round.
For many a day the stream we stemm'd,
Through isles that still its bosom gemm'd,
While oft, where back the cliffs retired,
The waving plain, in green attired,
Smiled in the dark and deep recess,
Like guarded spot in wilderness;
(Where Hamadryades might sport,
Or fairies hold their dewy court.)
At last our bark, 'mid eddies toss'd
And foam that all the wave emboss'd,