May 12, 2014

The Schuylkill (The New Pastoral 1871)

The Schuylkill,
Its green banks
Faire Mount
Lifted as
The height
Pours, from
The stream
Here, stranger
Which knew
Here trod

Lenni Lenape Indians
called it 'Ganshewchanna'
meaning 'Noisy Stream'.
They made Penn a small canoe,
a light birchen, quietly
propelling him.

He claimed in a letter
to the Society of Friends
that the river be 'hundred
miles boatable.'

    I flew my silken pennants down the river and found myself often thirsty and at times, bored.
   

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