“In the late afternoon of the following day the Bishop was walking alone along the banks of the life-giving stream, reviewing in his mind the events of the morning.”

Willa Cather -Death Comes for the Archbishop

“To call a river alive is not to personify a river, but instead further to deepen and widen the category of “life”, and in doing so- how did George Elliot put it? – enlarge the imagined range for self to move in’.”

Robert Macfarlane- Is a River Alive?