On The River.. Poem by john coldwell

O! our joy, the Great, the River Ouse
Thou still retains thine ancient banks
And give us yet those age old views
Of field, and fen, and willowed ranks

Through all the years of industry,
And commerce’s corrupting way,
Thou retains thy liquid purity,
Adorned with mallard, mute and Heron’s prey.

Glad we are to cruise thy flow
And forget the troubled world of men
One fleeting week, and then we go
Back to the drear, the drudge, of work again

But still, thy sparkle and thy gleam
Lives, in more than just our memory
Time, thou ever rolling stream
We could wish thee, our eternity.