Memorials of a Happy Time: The Two Rivers

Come with me through these mountain-vales, and see!
Two bravely-flowing streams this way have gone;
Must musical their flowing is to me,
So I will moralize awhile thereon.
One decks the eastern vale — the loveliest;
The other dashes onward from the west.
They join in quiet fields: you scarce can know
Which was the first to join. So, as is meet,
The gentler nature doth the sterner greet,
Because its name is softer and more sweet:
And he, the elder, loves to have it so.
Then in a lake they blend their kindred flow,
And it is said, and so it ought to be,
That they in one bright stream pass onward to the sea.