River Poems

CONTENTS
 
HEADWATERS
 
Hymn to the Nile
Ezekiel 47:9
LAOZI  From Dao De Jin
WANG WEI Cormorant Bank From Gold Dust Spring
DAFYDD LLWYD OF MATHAFARN  From To The River Dyfi
ALEXANDER POPE From Windsor Forest
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE  To the River Otter
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON  First Fountain
TRADITIONAL ENGLISH SONG The Waters of Tyne
TRADITIONAL AMERICAN SONG Shenandoah
RALPH WALDO EMERSON The River
HENRY DAVID THOREAU From The Journal
CARL SANDBURG Languages
PABLO NERUDA  Amazon
TED HUGHES River
VASKO POPA  Great Lord Danube
GABRIEL OKARA The Call of the River Nun
JIM HARRISON River III
RICHARD HUGO  Beaverbank
DAVID WAGONER  Talking to Barr Creek
DUANE NIATUM  Evening Near the Hoko River
CHARLES WRIGHT  Cloud River
 
 
Rapids & Pools
 
WANG WEI  Luan Family Rapids
HENRY VAUGHAN  The Water-Fall
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON  Could Love
EDGAR ALLAN POE  To the River
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON  From The Brook
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON  Looking-Glass River
THOMAS HARDY  The Something that Saved Him
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS  Inversnaid
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS  Stream and Sun at Glendalough
IVAN BUNIN  With the Current
NIKOLAUS LENAU  Look into the Stream
ROBERT FROST Too Anxious for Rivers
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS  River Rhyme
ANNE RIDLER River God’s Song
TED HUGHES  Low Water
WILLIAM STAFFORD Looking Across the River
DIANE WAKOSKI  The Canoer
KAY RYAN The Niagara River
GARY SNYDER  The Canyon Wren
DON MCKAY  Pool
GEFFREY DAVIS Upriver, Downstream
JOHN SIBLEY WILLIAMS  Suture
DONOVAN DOUGLAS  Haskin’s Creek, August, As Revival
TRINITY HERR Topography
NATASHA TRETHEWEY Elegy
RAYMOND CARVER  Simple
Freeze, Flow & Flood
 
FUJIWARA NO SADAYORI  Winter Dawn, Uji River
JOHN DRYDEN  London After the Great Fire, 1666
EDMUND SPENSER From Prothalamion
HENRY DAVID THOREAU From The Journal
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW From To the River Charles
WALT WHITMAN  From Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
SIDNEY LANIER The Song of the Chattahoochee
RUDYARD KIPLING  The River’s Tale
THOMAS HARDY  Overlooking the River Stour
KENJI MIYAZAWA  Along that Frozen Little River
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS  Down by the Salley Gardens
T.S. ELIOT  From The Dry Salvages
W.H. AUDEN  River Profile
A.R. AMMONS  River
JAMES WRIGHT To Flood Stage Again
WILLIAM STAFFORD  Ask Me
HAYDEN CARRUTH The Water
DON MCKAY  Night Skating on the Little Paddle River
JAMES DICKEY Inside the River
SHUNTARO TANIKAWA  From The River
WENDELL BERRY  The River Voyagers
LOUIS GLÜCK  Early December in Croton-on-Hudson
LOUISE ERDRICH  I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move
KAREN HOULE  Pleasure Craft
ALICE OSWALD  Birdwatcher
EMILY ROSKO  Flood Plain
 
 
Troubled Waters
 
From The Epic of Gilgamesh
WILLIAM BLAKE Why Should I care for the Men of Thames
JÓNAS HALLGRÍMSSON  The Sog, Iceland
WALT WHITMAN  Cavalry Crossing a Ford
ERNST STADLER  Ride Over the Cologne Rhine Bridge at Night
WILFRED OWEN  Shadwell Stair
LOUIS MACNEICE  Charon
EUGENIO MONTALE  Near Capua
RABINDRANATH TAGORE  The Golden Boat
PAUL DRESSER On The Banks of the Wabash, Far Away
H.D.  Leda
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS From Paterson
OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II  From Ol’ Man River
CONSTANCE URDANG The River
STEVIE SMITH  The River God
TED HUGHES Ophelia
JAMES WRIGHT In Response to a Rumor that the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling,
                         West Virginia, Has Been Condemned
CITTADHAR HṚDAYA  River
WILLIAM MEREDITH  At the Confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado
CHARLES BUKOWSKI  The Rivers
TSITSI ELLA JAJI  Limpopo Blues
JAMES GALVIN  Cache la Poudre
JORGE HUMBERTO CHÁVEZ  The River
TRACY SMITH Wade in the Water
TODD DAVIS  Poem Made from Sadness and Water
KIT EVANS Riverbed Blues
 

Meditations & Meanderings
 
LAOZI From Dao De Jin
DU FU  Thoughts on Traveling By Night
KOBAYASHI ISSA  Cricket Singing
UEJIMA ONITSURA Below the Jumping Sweetfish
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH  Upon Westminster Bridge
OSCAR WILDE  Symphony in Yellow
MARCEL PROUST  The Carafes of the Vivonne
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE Mirabeau Bridge 
WALLACE STEVENS The River of Rivers in Connecticut
LANGSTON HUGHES  The Negro Speaks of Rivers
BUDDHĀDASA BHIKKHU  The River Bends But the Water Does Not
PAULINE STAINER  Pouring the Sand Mandala into the Thames
SYLVIA PLATH  Faun
ROBERT BLY Driving Toward the Lac Qui Parle River
GRACE PALEY  Suddenly There’s Poughkeepsie
JAMES REANEY  To the Avon River, Above Stratford, Canada
GARY SNYDER River in the Valley
EAVAN BOLAND  Anna Liffey
MARY OLIVER  At Black River
SAM HAMILL  A Snapshot of Susitna
ALICE OSWALD From Dart
TCHICAYA U TAM’SI  Brush Fire
TODD DAVIS  Gnosis
PAULA BOHINCE La Seine
 
Deltas
 
ZHANG RUOXU  Moonlight on the Spring River
MATSUO BASHO  Mogami River 
                            Hot Summer Day
EMILY DICKINSON   My River Runs to Thee
                              Least Rivers
WILLIAM GIBSON  From The River Columbia
ALICE MEYNELL The Visiting Sea
VALERY BRYUSOV  To Myself
HART CRANE  Repose of Rivers
CARL SANDBURG  River Moons
MARINA TSVETAEVA From The Notebook
ROBINSON JEFFERS  Salmon-Fishing
RUTH PITTER The Estuary
EUGENIO MONTALE  Delta
THEODORE ROETHKE  River Incident
SHUNTARO TANIKAWA River
JAMES DICKEY  Awaiting the Swimmer
RAYMOND CARVER  Where Water Comes Together with Other Water
DAVID BOTTOMS  In a Jon Boat During a Florida Dawn
JOHN SIBLEY WILLIAMS  Sediment
BRUCE BOND  The Delta
SCOTT STARBUCK The Hunger