And the tempests shall cease
And there shall be peace."
From the fairest of fountains
And farthest of mountains,
From the stillness of snow
Came the stream in its flow.

Down the slopes where the rocks are gray,
Through the vales where the flowers are fair--

Where the sunlight flashed--where the shadows lay
Like stories that cloud a face of care,
The river ran on--and on--and on,
Day and night, and night and day.
Going and going, and never gone,
Longing to flow to the "far away."
Staying and staying, and never still,--
Going and staying, as if one will
Said, "Beautiful river, go to the sea,"
And another will whispered, "Stay with me"--
And the river made answer, soft and low,
"I go and stay--I stay and go."

"But what is the song?" I said at last
To the passing river that never passed;
And a white, white wave whispered, "List to me,
I'm a note in the song for the beautiful sea,
A song whose grand accents no earth din may sever,
And the river flows on in the same mystic key
That blends in one chord the 'forever and never.'"

[Footnote 12: By Abram J. Ryan, an American clergyman and poet.]

EXPRESSION: Read aloud the three lines which introduce the song of
the river. Read them in such a manner as to call up a mental
picture of the river on its way to the sea. Read the first five
lines of the third stanza in a similar way, and tell what picture
is now called up in your mind. Now read the river's song. Read what
the white wave said. Read the whole poem with spirit and feeling.

Notice the words "a-down," "a-singing," "a-bringing." What effect
is produced by the use of these unusual forms?

SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE[13]

Out of the hills of Habersham,
Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall,
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed or narrow or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With a lover's pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys of Hall.

All down the hills of Habersham,
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried, "Abide, abide,"
The willful waterweeds held me