Rivers Unknown to Song "James Thomson"

Wide waters in the waste; or, out of reach,

Rough Alpine falls where late a glacier hung;

Or rivers groping for the alien beach,

Through continents, unsung.

Nay, not these nameless, these remote, alone;

But all the streams from all the watersheds --

Peneus, Danube, Nile -- are the unknown.

Young in their ancient beds.

Man has no tale for them. O travellers swift / From secrets to oblivion! Waters wild / That pass in act to bend a flower, or lift / The bright limbs of a child!

For they are new, they are fresh; there's no surprise / Like theirs on earth. O strange for evermore! / This moment's Tiber with his shining eyes / Never saw Rome before.

Man has no word for their eternity -- / Rhine, Avon, Arno, younglings, youth uncrowned: / Ignorant, innocent, instantaneous, free, / Unwelcomed, unrenowned.