Read "The River of Dreams" by Henry van Dyke online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The river of dreams runs quietly down / From its hidden home in the forest of sleep, / With a measureless motion calm and deep; / And my boat slips out on the current brown, / In a tranquil bay where the trees incline / Far over the waves, and creepers twine / Far over the boughs, as if to steep / Their drowsy bloom in the tide that goes / By a secret way that no man knows, / Under the branches bending, / Under the shadows blending, / And the body rests, and the passive soul / Is drifted along to an unseen goal, / While the river of dreams runs down.
The river of dreams runs gently down, / With a leisurely flow that bears my bark / Out of the visionless woods of dark, / Into a glory that seems to crown / Valley and hill with light from far, / Clearer than sun or moon or star, / Luminous, wonderful, weird, oh, mark / How the radiance pulses everywhere, / In the shadowless vault of lucid air!