Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Four Lakes of Madison

Four limpid lakes,--four Naiades
Or sylvan deities are these,
  In flowing robes of azure dressed;
Four lovely handmaids, that uphold
Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold,
  To the fair city in the West. 

By day the coursers of the sun
Drink of these waters as they run
  Their swift diurnal round on high;
By night the constellations glow
Far down the hollow deeps below,
  And glimmer in another sky. 

Fair lakes, serene and full of light,
Fair town, arrayed in robes of white,
  How visionary ye appear!
All like a floating landscape seems
In cloud-land or the land of dreams,
  Bathed in a golden atmosphere! 

1. To the River Rhone
2. To the River Yvette
3. The Crew of the Long Serpent
4. King Olaf’s War-Horns
5. Oliver Basselin

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