Beyond the Dam – The fourth sonnet
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Beyond the Dam
What mighty waters flow this sunny day!
How speeding current washes o’er and round
Those rapids piercing powerful Penobscot’s sway
Through manless scenes of nature’s roaring sound!
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How waves of main wash o’er our logged deck!
With raft, and paddle crude in hands, we move
With rate of deer a-fleeing, hoping wreck
Upon these rocks be not her way to reprove.
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Our venture o’er her surface, rough and fierce.
“Veni, vidi, vici,”* both our hearts
Now sing as mighty waters cease to pierce
Our peace, and mirror nature’s endless arts.
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Ducks dart across the glass and lift their wings
In song as eyes behold immortal things.
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* “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Julius Caesar
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This sonnet was published in America Sings Anthology in 1963
(written August 21, 1963 while a student at Florida State University)