Explore "The Creek" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O cheerly, cheerly by the road / And merrily down the billet; / And where the acre-field is sowed / With bristle-bearded millet.
Then o'er a pebbled path that goes, / Through vista and through dingle, / Unto a farmstead's windowed rose, / And roof of moss and shingle.
O darkly, darkly through the bush, / And dimly by the bowlder, / Where cane and water-cress grow lush, / And woodland wilds are older.
Then o'er the cedared way that leads, / Through burr and bramble-thickets, / Unto a burial-ground of weeds / Fenced in with broken pickets.
Then sadly, sadly down the vale, / And wearily through the rushes, / Where sunlight of the noon is pale, / And e'en the zephyr hushes.
For oft her young face smiled upon / My deeps here, willow-shaded; / And oft with bare feet in the sun / My shallows there she waded.
No more beneath the twinkling leaves / Shall stand the farmer's daughter! -- / Sing softly past the cottage eaves, / O memory-haunted water!
No more shall bend her laughing face / Above me where the rose is! -- / Sigh softly past the burial-place, / Where all her youth reposes!