Poems (Proctor)/Merrimack River at its Source
MERRIMACK RIVER AT ITS SOURCE.
O Merrimack, strong Merrimack,All other streams may faint and lack,Exhale in clouds through dreary landsOr sink forlorn in desert sands;New Hampshire's hills and island-seaAre sureties for thy constancy!Pemigewasset leaps from the mountainsWhere the huge Stone Face looms cold and gray;Winnipesaukee fills at the fountainsOssipee guards and Chocorua—The sunny water that smiling liesWith its isles like a path to Paradise;And where Kearsarge uplifts his shrineThey blend their deathless floods in thine.