Classic Poem

We must be starting to explore.
Our boat will leave the lake, and quite
Vanish out of people's sight.
The border willows twist and curve
Around one half of the lake shore,
Making no deeper bend nor swerve
Where the stream comes rushing in
From the dark and watchful wood
Than in many a shallow more.
Unless you knew you never could
Find the place. Here we begin,
Pushing the willow boughs aside
That hide the mouth, now we have pried
Oars out for paddles, for the space
Narrows. We grind our teeth and brace
Our feet and paddle hard and quick,
Blaming each other when we stick,
Inch after inch upstream. A tree
Stands in the water. With a clank
Our boat chain lassoes it, lest we
Go slipping backward in the chase.
Inch after inch we push along
The current, obstinate and strong,
Splashing and shoving manfully.
Look how it winds and winds about!
But we have come to track it out.
The asters crowd down to the bank
And monkey-face looks in to see.
The woods close round us large and black.
It is about time we went back.
Now let her go, — and all we do
Is take life easy, sit and steer
While grandly we go sliding through
The landscape back and backward, — when
We shoot out in the lake again!
We did not know it was so near.
We come out blinking into it,
And there the fishermen still sit
Just as we left them, in the sun,
And the golden ripples run
On the lake floor fast and clear.
Things do not seem so different
From what they did before we went.