On Lolham Brigs in wild and lonely moodI've seen the winter floods their gambols
Through each old arch that trembled while I
Bent o'er its wall to watch the dashing
As their old stations would be washed
Crash came the ice against the jambs and thenA shudder jarred the arches - yet once
It breasted raving waves and stood
To wait the shock as stubborn as before- White foam brown crested with the russet
As washed from new plough lands would dart
Then round and round a thousand eddies
On tother side - then pause as if for
One minute - and engulphed - like life in
Whose wrecky stains dart on the floods
More swift than shadows in a stormy
Straws trail and turn and steady - all in
The engulfing arches shoot them quickly
The feather dances flutters and
Darts through the deepest dangers still
Seeming as faireys whisked it from the
And danced it o'er the waves as pleasures
Light hearted as a thought in May -Trays - uptorn bushes - fence demolished
Loaded with weeds in sluggish motions
Like water monsters lost each winds and
Till near the arches - then as in
It plunges - reels - and shudders out of
Waves trough - rebound - and fury boil
Like plunging monsters rising
Who at the top curl up a shaggy mainA moment catching at a surer
Then plunging headlong down and down - and
Each following boil the shadow of the
And other monsters rise when those are
Crest their fringed waves - plunge onward and are past- The chill air comes around me ocean
From bank to bank the waterstrife is
Strange birds like snow spots o'er the huzzing
Hang where the wild duck hurried past and
On roars the flood - all restless to be
Like trouble wandering to eternity
