Lost River
Lost River
Original Text
Seranus, Later Poems and New Villanelles
(Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1928): 8.
2Lost River only sees the sun
3Close shrouded in the mountain mist.
4What was the deed? With knife, with fist,
5With rope, was some poor soul undone?
6Well--let it be! But tales persist,
7For no one ever makes a tryst
8Beside these waters wise men shun,
9Close shrouded in the mountain mist.
10They say--a palsy plucks your wrist
11If e'er you try to fire a gun!
12Well--let it be; such tales persist,
13For where the river takes a twist,
14They say--so all the legends run--
15Close shrouded in the mountain mist,
16Unknown, unnamed, unmourned, unkissed,
17You see her face--a drowning nun!
18Well--let it be! Such tales persist,
19Close shrouded in the mountain mist.
Notes
1] See Harrison's "Rivière Perdue." Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Form