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Koreelah Creek

Down mighty crags and towering steeps,
Whose facets gleam and glisten,
Koreelah plunges, twines and leaps,
While myrtles seem to listen.

Now tumbling down with joyous shout,
‘Mid riot of foam and bubble;
Now dancing in and romping out,
And rippling o’er the rubble.

In crystal pools now hushed and still,
While little bell-birds tinkle;
Now racing on with purl and trill,
And glint of curve and crinkle.

She runs and sings in wanton glee,
From murmurs soft to trebles;
With dainty feet ‘neath fern and tree,
Light tripping o’er the pebbles.

She gurgles through the rifted rock,
In lucent curls and rimples;
She babbles where the boulders block,
Or glides with laughing dimples.

Through scrubs of teak and lawyer-vine,
Of tamarind and cedar,
She broadens down the vales of shine.
Where rill and rindle feed her.

Here regents flash the banks between.
And ‘rouse the drowsing geckoes;
Here whipbirds in the twilight green
Awake the mountain echoes.

Here summer comes with fruit and flower.
And song and laughter mingle;
Here autumn spreads her splendid dower
O’er vernal hill and dingle.

Koreelah Creek, for ages long
The wild-bred hunters’ leaven,
I heard thy lilting even song
Before my years were seven.

Sweet scent and sound of witching nights,
With fairy lamps adorning,
Were aftermaths of mellow lights.
That bathed the hills of morning.

Deep-mantled ‘neath they cradle hill,
I heard the catbird crying,
And haunting notes that calleth still,
When, autumn days are dying.

For after years brought other charms
To linger on Koreelah,
The soft embrace of maiden arms,
The love of little Liela,

Ah, tender heart, what magic spell
Was o’er those waters gleaming,
O’er verdant dale and moss-green dell,
In dear dead hours of dreaming!

The elves of old years bring her yet.
When sun-flushed eves are lonely,
Through glades and glens of warmth and wet
To vow she loves me only.

And when in stress of storm and rain,
Koreelah croons and gushes,
I hear her seraph song again
In luting reeds and rushes.

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