NEPIGON RIVER a poem

Or RIVER NEPIGON

by Robert Owen Foster
Copyright 1917  Mrs. Robert O. Foster, Minneapolis, MN 

Nepigon River

Grand, majestic river, sweeping
From the north in beauty's keeping,
Listen to my simple song
It will tell the love I bear thee;
Tell the lesson thou hast taught me,
Tell thy courage, wondrous strong.

When you fall your voice is tragic,
Deep and thunderous, and its magic
Awes, inspires, puts fear to rout:
But at this you do not worry,
Pick yourself up in a hurry
And again you laugh and shout.

Fill thy pathway with pretensions
Of great strife and dark dismay;
You laugh loud as your the gainer
Only show your dimples plainer
As you hurry on the way.

Now and then thy spirit slumbers;
Lo, thy charms in countless numbers
Weave their soothing spell o'er life;
Sweet contentment comes a stealing
O'er thy face so fair, revealing
Perfect peace so pure of strife.

There is something in thy dashing,
Dancing waters, ever splashing,
That suggests eternal spring.
They keep shouting, bounding, leaping,
While time, centuries, is reaping:
Still the same glad song they sing.

Grand old river how I love thee!
How I love thy joyous medley
Bursting forth in happy song!
It brings peace in generous measure:
Brings back boyhood's spring of pleasure,
When the days were young and long.

Thy glad anthem will be ringing
In man's heart forever: bringing
Aspirations pure and high:
Ages hence as he will wander
On thy banks, he'll muse and ponder
O'er thy grandeur same as I.

Possibly written in 1901
No information on the author Robert Owen Foster has been found at this time. (2014)
The book River Nepigon and Other Poems is available from various places according to on-line search results.