The Taunton River

'Twas fashioned in the olden times,                Howe’er the tides of human life
  By simple means and measures,                    May vary with the ages
With ready-made material drawn                  With new achievements and designs
  From nature’s boundless treasures.               That mark historic pages;

 Unnumbered rivulets and brooks                  Our river still shall flow unmoved
   Were started onward flowing;                       By changing laws and orders,
 Quite heedless what their errand was,           And smile alike on every race
   Or wither they were going. .                          That builds upon its borders.

 Until at length these wayward streams           Dispensing freely as it goes
   Each glad to be a giver,                                   Its uses and its graces,
 Combined and braided all their strands          It offers an example brave
   To form the one “great river”.                        To all men in all places.

 And then the river hastened on                      Let orators and poets true
  With steadfast, joyful motion,                        Their sweet discourse deliver
 To seek its fortune in the world,                    In praise of famous streams afar;
  And find the mighty ocean.                            We praise the Taunton River

                                                M. E. N.  Hathaway.
                                                    date unknown