The Flood

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