Page:Poems Denver.djvu/316

THE RIVER ECHO.

In the heart of green Kentucky,
 With its woods and mountains blent,
Lies a cave of wondrous beauty,
 Rare and most magnificent.
In its chambers cold and lofty,
 Strange shapes of crystal rise,
Gem-like in their icy splendor,
 Antique in their imageries.

Through that cavern vast and wondrous
 Runs a river deep and broad,
With its ever-swelling billows,
 Surging through the dim abode.
Toward the world of light they struggle
 With a never-ending strife,
Like a great soul in thick darkness,
 Searching for the way of life.

And they call that river, Echo;
 For a sound cast on its wave,
Quickly caught, as by enchantment,
 Rebounds from cave to cave;