"Oh, Mystical River!" (6 Dec. 1881)
Quartette for Mixed Voices
Words by Fanny I. Kennish
Music by Thomas Martin Towne, 1835-1912

1.
There's a quiver of leaves in the forest
There's a glimmer of light through the trees,
There's a silvery trill thro' the woodland,
In the music of birds and the bees;
But silent and calm in the sunlight,
Unmindful of beauty of song,
Through forest and valley and wildwood,
Our lone river sweepeth along.

CHORUS
But silent and calm in the sunlight,
Unmindful of beauty or song,
Through forest and valley and wildwood,
Our lone river sweepeth along (it sweepeth along).

REFRAIN
Sweepeth, (Sweepeth,) Sweepeth, (Sweepeth,) 
Sweepeth, Sweepeth along;
Sweepeth, (Sweepeth,) Sweepeth, (Sweepeth,) 
Sweepeth, Sweepeth along.

2.
As we gaze on its glimmering beauty,
Nature's mirror of shadowy skies,
As we list in a wave-eaten grotto
For an echo that whispers and dies;
We gather the gray trailing mosses,
O'er old fallen cedars entwined,
And dream thro' the long summer hours,
In the shade of the dark northern pine.

(CHORUS)
(REFRAIN)

3.
How like thee, Oh! our beautiful river,
Now so silent, so chainless and free,
Ah! the river of time is e'er flowing,
And neareth Eternity's sea,
That lingereth not in the sunlight,
Nor heedeth the storm nor the strife,
But onward it beareth our life-'barks,
In the mystical voyage of life.

(CHORUS)
(REFRAIN)