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CANANDAIGUA LAKE. 



BY C. T. MITCHELL, M. D. 



Fair Canandaigua! boldly I proclaim 



Thy wondrous beautj^, and time-honored 

 name. 

 Fairest of all thy sisters in the chain, 



And loveliest dewdrop in our state's domain, 

 Thy presence here in wonder makes me ask. 



If by design God undertook the task 

 To beautify the landscape, or to spread 



A bounteous table from which man is fed? 

 I recognize His Goodness, and give thanks. 



As oft 1 spend a day upon thy banks ; 

 Content am 1, as 1 enjoy thy grace. 



In angler's heart to give thee fondest place. 

 More pleased were I if I coujd true and well, 



In rhyme'd words thj'wond'rous history tell. 

 That we together, on this festal night, 



In thy romance might revel with delight ; 

 But as I glance across thy changeful face, 



I see no clue whereby thy life to trace ; 

 No written line on mouldy parchment found 



In sealed vault far hidden under ground. 

 Can point me to the day that gave thee birth. 

 And laid thee in the lap of inother earth ; 



Or fixed the boundary of thy waveless tide 

 Between the verdant hills on either side. 



Unnumbered ages of on-sweeping time, 



Have brushed across thy placid face sublime ; 

 Rude storms have tossed thee roughly as they 

 beat 

 Thy rocky shores, and forked lightning's 

 heat 

 Has often tried by direst fear to wrest 

 This birth-right secret from thy sealed 

 breast. 

 Dark woody glens, down which wild stream- 

 lets leap. 

 In undiscovered graves their secrets keep ; 

 The mystic past, concealed in Nature's womb, 



Abode in silence 'midst their leafy gloom. 

 Till in the book of Nature man's proud mind 



Did haply there a true solution find 

 Of this vexed problem, how and when thy 

 birth 

 Took place at just this Eden spot of earth. 

 E'er yet light streaming from the eastern sky 



