"Build up your granite piles Around my trembling isles," I hear the River's scornful Genius say: "Raise for eternal time Your palaces sublime, And flash your golden turrets in the day! "But in my waters cold A mystery I hold,-- Of empires and of dynasties the fate: I bend my haughty will, Unchanged, unconquered still, And smile to note your triumph: mine can wait. "Your fetters I allow, As a strong man may bow His sportive neck to meet a child's command, And curb the conscious power That in one awful hour Could whelm your halls and temples where they stand. "When infant Rurik first His Norseland mother nursed, My willing flood the future chieftain bore: To Alexander's fame I lent my ancient name, What time my waves ran red with Pagan gore. "Then Peter came. I laughed To feel his little craft Borne on my bosom round the marshy isles: His daring dream to aid, My chafing floods I laid, And saw my shores transfixed with arrowy piles. "I wait the far-off day When other dreams shall sway The House of Empire builded by my side,-- Dreams that already soar From yonder palace-door, And cast their wavering colors on my tide,-- "Dreams where white temples rise Below the purple skies, By waters blue, which winter never frets,-- Where trees of dusky green From terraced gardens lean, And shoot on high the reedy minarets. "Shadows of mountain-peaks Vex my unshadowed creeks; Dark woods o'erhang my silvery birchen bowers; And islands, bald and high, Break my clear round of sky, And ghostly odors blow from distant flowers. "Then, ere the cold winds chase These visions from my face, I see the starry phantom of a crown, Beside whose blazing gold This cheating pomp is cold, A moment hover, as the veil drops down. "Build on! That day shall see My streams forever free. Swift as the wind, and silent as the snow, The frost shall split each wall: Your domes shall crack and fall: My bolts of ice shall strike your barriers low!" On palace, temple, spire, The morn's descending fire In thousand sparkles o'er the city fell: Life's rising murmur drowned The Neva where he wound Between his isles: he keeps his secret well. ROBSON.