To Leven Water - Tobias George Smollett

Pure stream, in whose transparent wave
My youthful limbs I wont to lave;
No torrents stain thy limpid source,
No rocks impede thy dimpling course
Devolving from thy parent lake
A charming maze thy waters make
By bowers of birch and groves of pine
And edges flower'd with eglantine.

Still on thy banks so gaily green
May numerous herds and flocks be seen,
And lasses chanting o'er the pail,
And shepherds piping in the dale,
And ancient faith that knows no guile,
And industry embrown'd with toil,
And hearts resolved and hands prepared
The blessings they enjoy to guard.

Leven Water
photo: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Leven,_Fife)

---

Tobias George Smollett. 1721–1771
Source: The Oxford Book of English Verse. Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch. Oxford: Clarendon, 1919