Rivers

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river.

• I am the prince who decides the destiny of rolling rivers.
  • Anzud, in Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird, Ur III Period (21st century BCE).[1]

• Let's lie down on the bank of the river
  and listen to water's pulse.
  • Linda Hogan (writer) Dark. Sweet.: New & Selected Poems (2014)

• A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure. It offers a necessity of life that must be rationed among those who have power over it.
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., New Jersey v. New York, et al., 283 U.S. 336, 342 (1931).

• You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.
  • Heraclitus, Fragment 12 Fragments of Heraclitus.

• Rivers have been personalized (Old Father Thames), fantasized (Anna Livia Plurabelle), sung to (Ol' Man River), regarded as sacred (Ganges, Alph) invented to symbolize the inevitability of death (Styx), remembered because they marked turning points in human history (Rubicon). If it were not for the winding Maiandros we would not meander; without the Rhine literature and music would be the poorer by the loss of countless legends; Christ was baptized in the Jordan. And when river and city meet, the human race puts down roots of civilization; it is my consciousness of that truth that makes it impossible for me to get used to the idea of invisible rivers, those streams that have been covered over as cities spread, but continue to flow silently and unseen beneath the streets.
  • Bernard Levin, Enthusiasms, Chapter 4 (1983).

• There is a river in Macedon, and there is also, moreover, a river at Monmouth. It is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river. But ’tis all one; ’tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 4, sc. 7 (Fluellen)

Kampan quoted in: A. K. Ramanujan in: Two Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation, UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004

• The River

• The cloud, wearing white
  on white like Siva,
  making beautiful the sky
  on his way from the sea
  grew dark
  as the face of the Lord
  who wears with pride
  on his right the Goddess
  of the scented breasts.

• They pour like a generous giver
  giving all he has,
  remembering and reckoning
  all he has.

• It floods, it runs over
  its continents like the fame
  of a great king, upright,
  infallible, reigning by the Laws
  under cool royal umbrellas.

• Concubines caressing
  their lovers' hair, their lovers'
  bodies, their lovers' limbs,
  take away whole hills
  of wealth yet keep little
  in their spendthrift hands
  as they move on: so too
  the waters flow from the peaks
  to the valleys,
  beginning high and reaching low.

• The flood carrying all before it
  like merchants, caravans
  loaded with gold, pearls,
  peacock feathers and rows
  of white tusk and fragrant woods.

• Bending to a curve, the river,
  surface colored by petals,
  gold yellow pollen, honey,
  the ochre flow of elephant lust,
  looked much like a rainbow.

• Ravaging hillsides, uprooting trees,
  covered with fallen leaves all over,
  the waters came,
  like a monkey clan
  facing restless seas
  looking for a bridge.

• Thick-faced proud elephants
  ranged with foaming cavalier horses
  filling the air with the noise of war,
  raising banners,
  the flood rushes
  as for a battle with the sea.

• Stream of numberless kings
  in the line of the Sun,
  continuous in virtue:
  the river branches into deltas,
  mother's milk to all lives
  on the salt sea-surrounded land.

• Scattering a robber camp on the hills
  with a rain of arrows,
  the sacred women beating their bellies
  and gathering bow and arrow as they run,
  the waters assault villages
  like the armies of a king.

• Stealing milk and buttermilk,
  guzzling on warm ghee and butter
  straight from the pots on the ropes,
  leaning the marutam tree on the kuruntam
  carrying away the clothes and bracelets
  of goatherd girls at water games,
  like Krsna dancing
  on the spotted snake,
  the waters are naughty.

• Turning forest into slope,
  field into wilderness,
  seashore into fertile land,
  changing boundaries,
  exchanging landscapes,
  the reckless waters
  roared on like the pasts
  that hurry close on the heels
  of lives.

• Born of Himalayan stone
  and mingling with the seas,
  it spreads, ceaselessly various,
  one and many at once,
  like that Original
  even the measureless Vedas
  cannot measure with words.

• Through pollen-dripping groves,
  clumps of champak,
  lotus pools,
  water places with new sands,
  flowering fields cross-fenced
  with creepers,
  like a life filling and emptying
  a variety of bodies,
  the river flows on.

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 675-676.

• And see the rivers how they run
  Through woods and meads, in shade and sun,
  Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,—
  Wave succeeding wave, they go
  A various journey to the deep,
  Like human life to endless sleep!
  • John Dyer, Grongar Hill, line 93.

• The fountains of sacred rivers flow upwards, (i.e. everything is turned topsy turvy).
  • Euripides, Medea, 409.

• Two ways the rivers
  Leap down to different seas, and as they roll
  Grow deep and still, and their majestic presence
  Becomes a benefaction to the towns
  They visit, wandering silently among them,
  Like patriarchs old among their shining tents.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus. The Golden Legend. Part V.

• By shallow rivers, to whose falls
  Melodious birds sing madrigals.
  • Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love; same idea in Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, Scene 1; said to be written by Shakespeare and Marlowe.

• Les rivières sent des chemins qui marchant et qui portent où l'on veut aller.
  • Rivers are roads that move and carry us whither we wish to go.
  • Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1669), VII. 38.

• Viam qui nescit qua deveniat ad mare
  Eum oportet amnem quærere comitem sibi.
  • He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide.
  • Plautus, Pœnulus, III. 3. 14.

• May the river of love always flow from its own lap.
  • Suman Pokhrel, Song of Soul

• Now scantier limits the proud arch confine,
  And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine;
  A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd,
  And little eagles wave their wings in gold.
  • Alexander Pope, Moral Essays. Epistle to Addison. line 27.

• From Stirling Castle we had seen
  The mazy Forth unravelled;
  Had trod the banks of Clyde and Tay,
  And with the Tweed had travelled;
  And when we came to Clovenford,
  Then said "my winsome marrow,"
  "Whate'er betide, we'll turn aside,
  And see the braes of Yarrow."
  • William Wordsworth, Yarrow Unvisited.

For the Nile River, see Nile; for the Rhine, see Rhine.

• Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
  Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise.
  • Robert Burns, Flow Gently, Sweet Afton, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 12.

• In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
  A stately pleasure-dome decree;
  Where Alph, the sacred river ran,
  Through caverns measureless to man
  Down to a sunless sea.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 19.

• At last the Muses rose, * * * And scattered, * * * as they flew,
  Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa's bowers
  To Arno's myrtle border.
  • Mark Akenside, Pleasures of the Imagination II, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 43.

• Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore,
  O'erhung with wild woods, thickening green;
  The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar
  Twined amorous round the raptured scene.
  • Robert Burns, To Mary in Heaven, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 53.

• Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes!
  My peace with these, my love with those.
  The bursting tears my heart declare;
  Farewell, the bonnie banks of Ayr.
  • Robert Burns, The Banks of Ayr, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 53.

• Yet I will look upon thy face again,
  My own romantic Bronx, and it will be
  A face more pleasant than the face of men.
  Thy waves are old companions, I shall see
  A well remembered form in each old tree
  And hear a voice long loved in thy wild minstrelsy.
  • Joseph Rodman Drake, Bronx, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 84.

• Where stray ye, Muses! in what lawn or grove,
  * * * * * *
  In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides,
  Or else where Cam his winding vales divides?
  • Alexander Pope, Summer, line 23, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 89.

• Out of the hills of Habersham,
  Down the valleys of Hall,
  I hurry amain to reach the plain:
  Run the rapid and leap the fall,
  Split at the rock, and together again
  Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
  And flee from folly on every side
  With a lover's pain to attain the plain,
  Far from the hills of Habersham,
  Far from the valleys of Hall.
  • Sidney Lanier, The Song of the Chattahoochee, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 109.

• How sweet to move at summer's eve
  By Clyde's meandering stream,
  When Sol in joy is seen to leave
  The earth with crimson beam;
  When islands that wandered far
  Above his sea couch lie,
  And here and there some gem-like star
  Re-opes its sparkling eye.
  • Andrew Park, The Banks of Clyde, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 123.

• Then I saw the Congo, creeping through the black,
  Cutting through the jungle with a golden track.
  • Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, The Congo, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 129.

• Flow on, lovely Dee, flow on, thou sweet river,
  Thy banks' purest stream shall be dear to me ever.
  • John Tait, The Banks of the Dee, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 184.

• "O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
  And call the cattle home,
  And call the cattle home,
  Across the sands o' Dee;"
  The western wind was wild and dank wi' foam
  And all alone went she.
  • Charles Kingsley, The Sands o' Dee, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 184.

• Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon,
  How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair;
  How can ye chant, ye little birds,
  And I sae weary fu' o' care!
  • Robert Burns, The Banks o' Doon, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 200.

• Oh, my beloved nymph, fair Dove,
  Princess of rivers, how I love
  Upon thy flowery banks to lie,
  And view thy silver stream,
  When gilded by a summer's beam!
  And in it all thy wanton fry,
  Playing at liberty;
  And with my angle, upon them
  The all of treachery
  I ever learned, industriously to try!
  • Charles Cotton, The Retirement, line 34, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 201.

• On Linden, when the sun was low,
  All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
  And dark as winter was the flow
  Of Isar, rolling rapidly.
  • Thomas Campbell, Hohenlinden, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 401.

• Thou soft-flowing Keedron by thy silver stream
  Our Saviour at midnight when Cynthia's pale beam
  Shone bright on the waters, would oftentimes stray
  And lose in thy murmurs the toils of the day.
  • Maria de Fleury, Thou soft-flowing Keedron, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 415.

• On this I ponder
  Where'er I wander,
  And thus grow fonder,
  Sweet Cork, of thee,—
  With thy bells of Shandon,
  That sounds so grand on
  The pleasant waters
  Of the river Lee.
  • Father Prout (Francis Mahoney), The Bells of Shandon, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 415.

• On Leven's banks, while free to rove,
  And tune the rural pipe to love,
  I envied not the happiest swain
  That ever trod the Arcadian plain.
  Pure stream! in whose transparent wave
  My youthful limbs I wont to lave;
  No torrents stain thy limpid source,
  No rocks impede thy dimpling course,
  That sweetly warbles o'er its bed,
  With white, round, polish'd pebbles spread.
  • Tobias Smollett, Ode to Leven Water, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 437.

• And Potomac flowed calmly, scarce heaving her breast,
  With her low-lying billows all bright in the west,
  For a charm as from God lulled the waters to rest
  Of the fair rolling river.
  • Paul Hamilton Hayne, Beyond the Potomac, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 619.

• Is it not better, then, to be alone,
  And love Earth only for its earthly sake?
  By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone
  Or the pure bosom of its nursing lake.
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III (1816), Stanza 71, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 673.

• Thou Royal River, born of sun and shower
  In chambers purple with the Alpine glow,
  Wrapped in the spotless ermine of the snow
  And rocked by tempests!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, To the River Rhone, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 673.

• Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
  Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po!
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 1, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 691.

• Alone by the Schuylkill a wanderer rov'd,
  And bright were its flowery banks to his eye;
  But far, very far, were the friends that he lov'd,
  And he gaz'd on its flowery banks with a sigh.
  • Thomas Moore, Lines Written on Leaving Philadelphia, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 691.

• Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
  Far, far away,
  Dere's whar ma heart am turning ebber,
  Dere's whar de old folks stay.
  All up and down de whole creation,
  Sadly I roam,
  Still longing for de old plantation,
  And for de old folks at home.
  • Stephen Collins Foster, Old Folks at Home. (Swanee Ribber), reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 773.

• Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide
  The glaring bale-fires blaze no more;
  No longer steel-clad warriors ride
  Along thy wild and willow'd shore.
  • Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto IV, Stanza 1, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 785.

• O, could I flow like thee! and make thy stream
  My great example, as it is my theme;
  Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull;
  Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
  • Sir John Denham, Cooper's Hill, line 189, regarding the River Thames. Latin prose with same idea found in a letter of Roger Ascham's to Sir William Petre. Epistles. P. 254. (Ed. 1590). reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 785.

• Serene yet strong, majestic yet sedate,
  Swift without violence, without terror great.
  • Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare, line 200. Imitation of Denham, regarding the River Thames, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 785.

• Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames;
  Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt
  In Twit'nham bowers, and for their Pope implore.
  • James Thomson, The Seasons, Summer (1727), line 1,425, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 785.

• Never did sun more beautifully steep
  In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
  Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
  The river glideth at his own sweet will.
  Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
  And all that mighty heart is lying still!
  • William Wordsworth, Sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, regarding the River Thames, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 785.

• Thou hast fair forms that move
  With queenly tread;
  Thou hast proud fanes above
  Thy mighty dead.
  Yet wears thy Tiber's shore
  A mournful mien:-
  Rome, Rome, thou art no more
  As thou hast been.
  • Felicia Hemans, Roman Girl's Song, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 791.

• Those graceful groves that shade the plain,
  Where Tiber rolls majestic to the main,
  And flattens, as he runs, the fair campagne.
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XIV: Æneas Arrives in Italy, line 8; Sir Samuel Garth's trans, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 791.

• Oh Tiber, father Tiber, to whom the Romans pray,
  A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, take thou in charge this day!
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Horatius.

• Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
  Into the channel, till the lowest stream
  Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act I. Scene 1, line 63, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 791.

• Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream,
  When first on them I met my lover;
  Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream,
  When now thy waves his body cover!
  • John Logan (minister) The Braes of Yarrow.

• O lovely river of Yvette!
  O darling river! like a bride,
  Some dimpled, bashful, fair Lisette,
  Thou goest to wed the Orge's tide.
  O lovely river of Yvette!
  O darling stream! on balanced wings
  The wood-birds sang the chansonnette
  That here a wandering poet sings.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, To the River Yvette, Stanza 5, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 924.

• I see the winding waters make
  A short and then a shorter lake
  As here stand I
  And houseboat-high
  Survey the upper Thames.
  • John Betjeman, Henley-on-Thames, from New Bats in Old Belfries (1945)

• Admiralty law
• Ganges in Hinduism
• Geography
• Marsh
• Navy
• Nile
• Oceans
• Pond
• Sea
• Tigris–Euphrates river system
• Water
• Wind wave