When you have lain for weeks together
On such a noble river’s breast,
And learnt its face in every weather,
And loved its motions and its rest,—
’T is hard at some appointed place
To check your course and turn your prow,
And objects for themselves retrace
You past with added hope just now.
The silent highway forward beckons,
And all the bars that reason plants
Now disappointed fancy reckons
As foolish fears or selfish wants.
The very rapids, rocks, and shoals
Seem but temptations which the stream
Holds out to energetic souls,
That worthy of its love may seem.
But life is full of limits; heed not
One more or less,—the forward track
May often give you what you need not,
While wisdom waits on turning back.
The Nile is the world's longest river and its most famous. No wonder there are so many poems about the River Nile. Poetry Atlas has mapped the poetic geography of the Nile by collecting a few of these poems about the Nile.