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Mississippi River

From Wikiquote

The Mississippi River is the primary river and second-longest river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 mi (3,766 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Quotes

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  • Majestic stream! along thy banks,
    In silent, stately, solemn ranks,
    The forests stand, and seem with pride
    To gaze upon thy mighty tide.
  • Monarch of Rivers in the wide domain
    Where Freedom writes her signature in stars,
    And bids her eagle bear the blazing scroll,
    To usher in the reign of peace and love,
    Thou mighty Mississippi!
  • O grandly flowing river!
    O silver-gliding river!
    Thy springing willows shiver
      In the sunset as of old...
    O gay, oblivious river!
    O sunset-kindled river!
    Do you remember ever
      The eyes and skies so blue...
    O stern impassive river!
    O still unanswering river!
    The shivering willows quiver
      As the night-winds moan and rave.
  • I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
  • The Mississippi of the North! bright stream
    On whose fair bosom first of all their race,
    Marquette and Joliet float, and fondly dream
    Of empires new and heathen brought to grace.
    How pride and wonder lighted up each face
    While down the stream the brave explorers sped,
    Marking the devious windings as they trace
    The noble river’s wood-environed bed
    To where Missouri’s waves the gentle waters wed.
    * * * * *
    Untamed and restless river! in thy bed,
    From Cape Girardeau to the delta’s verge,
    Vibrating waywardly; thy wild waves fed
    With spoil of shores down-fallen in the surge,
    And floating forests, which thy waters urge
    In endless drift into the distant sea,
    Where thou and all thy hundred confluents merge;
    In thy long reaching flow still shalt thou be
    From man’s restraining masonry forever free!
    • Edward Reynolds, "The Mississippi"; Poems of America, ed. H. W. Longfellow (1882), p. 123

See also

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Wikipedia
Wikipedia
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