“I Sailed up a River...”
by Henry D. Thoreau

I sailed up a river with a pleasant wind,
New lands, new people, and new thoughts to find; 
Many fair reaches and headlands appeared,
And many dangers were there to be feared;
But when I remember where I have been,
And the fair landscapes that I have seen,
Thou seemest the only permanent shore,
The cape never rounded, nor wandered o'er.

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A Note on the Text:

• Source: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers [The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906) p. [2]]

• Title from first line

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