Songs, Legends, and Ballads/Under the River

by John Boyle O'Reilly

UNDER THE RIVER

CLEAR and bright, from the snowy height,
The joyous stream to the plain descended:
Rich sands of gold were washed and rolled
To the turbid marsh where its pure life ended.

From stainless snow to the moor below
The heart like the brook has a waning mission:
The buried dream in life's sluggish stream
Is the golden sand of our young ambition.