The Mississippi River By Sarah Josepha Hale

Shadowed beneath those awful piles o' stone,
Where Liberty has found a Pisgah height,
O'erlooking all the land she loves to bless,
The jagged rocks and icy towers her guard,
Whose splintered summits seize the warring clouds,
And roll them, broken, like a host o'erthrown,
Adown the mountain's side, scattering their wealth
Of powdered pearl and liquid diamond drops, —
There is thy source, — great River of the West!

Slowly, like youthful Titan gathering strength
To war with heaven and win himself a name,
The stream moves onward through the dark ravines,
Rending the roots of overarching trees,
To form its narrow channel, where the star,
That fain would bathe its beauty in the wave,
Like lover's glance steals, trembling through the leaves,
That veil the waters with a vestal's care;
And few of human form have ventured there,
Save the swart savage in his bark canoe.

But now it deepens, struggles, rushes on;
Like goaded war-horse, bounding o'er the foe,
It clears the rocks it may not spurn aside,
Leaping, as Curtius leaped adown the gulf,
And rising, like Antaeus from the fall,
Its course majestic through the land pursues,
And the broad River o'er the Valley reigns!

This is a free verse poem about the Mississippi River. I thought this fit in with my theme because not only is it a place, or destination, it is also something that can take you places, and allow you to travel over it. This poem explains how mighty and intense the river is, and how powerful it is. There is allusion in stanza 2, line 1, referring to Titan, gathering strength. It is explaining that as the river is youthful (or at the beginning of the river) it is not at its strongest yet, but it is “gathering strength”. There is a simile in stanza 2, line 6-7 “That fain would bathe its beauty in the wave”, and in stanza 3, line 2 “Like goaded war-horse, bounding o'er the foe”. There is personification in stanza 2, line 6, saying the star would “bathe its beauty in the wave”, but stars can’t actually bathe themselves. There is also allusion in stanza 3, referring to Antaeus (a giant), and Curtius (a Roman hero). In the last line, the poet capitalizes “River”, suggesting that the river is something high and mighty, which has importance.