Poem by Dinah Maria Craik

At the Linn-Side, Roslin

O LIVING, living water,
    So busy and so bright,
Aye flashing in the morning beams,
    And sounding through the night;
O, golden-shining water,—
    Would God that I might be
A vocal message from his mouth
    Into the world, like thee!

O merry, merry water,
    Which nothing e’er affrays;	
And as it pours from rock to rock
    Nothing e’er stops or stays;
But past cool heathery hollows
    And gloomy pools it flows;
Past crags that fain would shut it in
    Leaps through,—and on it goes.

O fresh’ning, sparkling water,
    O voice that ’s never still,
Though winter lays her dead-white hand
    On brae and glen and hill;
Though no leaf ’s left to flutter
    In woods all mute and hoar,
Yet thou, O river, night and day
    Thou runnest evermore.

No foul thing can pollute thee;
    Thy swiftness casts aside
All ill, like a good heart and true,
    However sorely tried.
O living, living water,
    So fresh and bright and free,—
God lead us through this changeful world
    Forever pure, like thee!

1. The Night Before the Mowing
2. Fishermen—Not of Galilee
3. Moon-Struck
4. A Rejected Lover
5. The Aurora on the Clyde

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