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I. NOON WHITE clouds, whose shadows haunt the deep, | |
| Light mists, whose soft embraces keep | |
| The sunshine on the hills asleep! | |
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| O isles of calm!—O dark, still wood! | |
| And stiller skies that overbrood | 5 |
| Your rest with deeper quietude! | |
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| O shapes and hues, dim beckoning, through | |
| Yon mountain gaps, my longing view | |
| Beyond the purple and the blue, | |
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| To stiller sea and greener land, | 10 |
| And softer lights and airs more bland, | |
| And skies,—the hollow of God’s hand! | |
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| Transfused through you, O mountain friends! | |
| With mine your solemn spirit blends, | |
| And life no more hath separate ends. | 15 |
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| I read each misty mountain sign, | |
| I know the voice of wave and pine, | |
| And I am yours, and ye are mine. | |
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| Life’s burdens fall, its discords cease, | |
| I lapse into the glad release | 20 |
| Of Nature’s own exceeding peace. | |
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| O welcome calm of heart and mind! | |
| As falls yon fir-tree’s loosened rind | |
| To leave a tenderer growth behind, | |
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| So fall the weary years away; | 25 |
| A child again, my head I lay | |
| Upon the lap of this sweet day. | |
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| This western wind hath Lethean powers, | |
| Yon noonday cloud nepenthe showers, | |
| The lake is white with lotus-flowers! | 30 |
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| Even Duty’s voice is faint and low, | |
| And slumberous Conscience, waking slow, | |
| Forgets her blotted scroll to show. | |
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| The Shadow which pursues us all, | |
| Whose ever-nearing steps appall, | 35 |
| Whose voice we hear behind us call,— | |
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| That Shadow blends with mountain gray, | |
| It speaks but what the light waves say,— | |
| Death walks apart from Fear to-day! | |
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| Rocked on her breast, these pines and I | 40 |
| Alike on Nature’s love rely; | |
| And equal seems to live or die. | |
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| Assured that He whose presence fills | |
| With light the spaces of these hills | |
| No evil to his creatures wills, | 45 |
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| The simple faith remains, that He | |
| Will do, whatever that may be, | |
| The best alike for man and tree. | |
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| What mosses over one shall grow, | |
| What light and life the other know, | 50 |
| Unanxious, leaving Him to show. | |
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II. EVENING Yon mountain’s side is black with night, | |
| While, broad-orbed, o’er its gleaming crown | |
| The moon, slow-rounding into sight, | |
| On the hushed inland sea looks down. | 55 |
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| How start to light the clustering isles, | |
| Each silver-hemmed! How sharply show | |
| The shadows of their rocky piles, | |
| And tree-tops in the wave below! | |
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| How far and strange the mountains seem, | 60 |
| Dim-looming through the pale, still light! | |
| The vague, vast grouping of a dream, | |
| They stretch into the solemn night. | |
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| Beneath, lake, wood, and peopled vale, | |
| Hushed by that presence grand and grave, | 65 |
| Are silent, save the cricket’s wail, | |
| And low response of leaf and wave. | |
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| Fair scenes! whereto the Day and Night | |
| Make rival love, I leave ye soon, | |
| What time before the eastern light | 70 |
| The pale ghost of the setting moon | |
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| Shall hide behind yon rocky spines, | |
| And the young archer, Morn, shall break | |
| His arrows on the mountain pines, | |
| And, golden-sandalled, walk the lake! | 75 |
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| Farewell! around this smiling bay | |
| Gay-hearted Health, and Life in bloom, | |
| With lighter steps than mine, may stray | |
| In radiant summers yet to come. | |
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| But none shall more regretful leave | 80 |
| These waters and these hills than I: | |
| Or, distant, fonder dream how eve | |
| Or dawn is painting wave and sky; | |
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| How rising moons shine sad and mild | |
| On wooded isle and silvering bay; | 85 |
| Or setting suns beyond the piled | |
| And purple mountains lead the day; | |
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| Nor laughing girl, nor bearding boy, | |
| Nor full-pulsed manhood, lingering here, | |
| Shall add, to life’s abounding joy, | 90 |
| The charmed repose to suffering dear. | |
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| Still waits kind Nature to impart | |
| Her choicest gifts to such as gain | |
| An entrance to her loving heart | |
| Through the sharp discipline of pain. | 95 |
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| For ever from the Hand that takes | |
| One blessing from us others fall! | |
| And, soon or late, our Father makes | |
| His perfect recompense to all! | |
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| O watched by Silence and the Night, | 100 |
| And folded in the strong embrace | |
| Of the great mountains, with the light | |
| Of the sweet heavens upon thy face, | |
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| Lake of the Northland! keep thy dower | |
| Of beauty still, and while above | 105 |
| Thy solemn mountains speak of power, | |
| Be thou the mirror of God’s love. | |
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