Page:Poems Craik.djvu/99

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 freshening, 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, 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!