英语六级晨读美文100篇:Two Views of the River(43)

　　Now when I had mastered the language of this water,

　　and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river

　　as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet,

　　I had made a valuable acquisition.

　　But I had lost something, too.

　　I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived.

　　All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river!

　　I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed

　　when steamboating was new to me.

　　A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood;

　　in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold,

　　through which a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous;

　　in one place, a long slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water;

　　in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings,

　　that were as many-tinted as an opal;

　　where the ruddy flush was faintest,

　　was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines,

　　ever so delicately traced;

　　the shore on our left was densely wooded,

　　and the somber shadow that fell from this forest

　　was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver;

　　and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough

　　that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun.

　　There were graceful curves,reflected images, woody heights,soft distances;

　　and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily,

　　enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring.