Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Middle States: Catskill Mountains, N. Y. | | Catskill Mountains | | Theodore Sedgwick Fay (1807–1898) |
| | (From My Native Land)
AND, lo! the Catskills print the distant sky, | |
| And o’er their airy tops the faint clouds driven, | |
| So softly blending, that the cheated eye | |
| Forgets or which is earth or which is heaven,— | |
| Sometimes, like thunder-clouds, they shade the even, | 5 |
| Till, as you nearer draw, each wooded height | |
| Puts off the azure hues by distance given: | |
| And slowly break upon the enamored sight, | |
| Ravine, crag, field, and wood, in colors true and bright. | |
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| Mount to the cloud-kissed summit. Far below | 10 |
| Spreads the vast champaign like a shoreless sea. | |
| Mark yonder narrow streamlet feebly flow, | |
| Like idle brook that creeps ingloriously; | |
| Can that the lovely, lordly Hudson be, | |
| Stealing by town and mountain? Who beholds, | 15 |
| At break of day, this scene, when, silently, | |
| Its map of field, wood, hamlet, is unrolled, | |
| While, in the east, the sun uprears his locks of gold, | |
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| Till earth receive him never can forget? | |
| Even when returned amid the city’s roar, | 20 |
| The fairy vision haunts his memory yet, | |
| As in the sailor’s fancy shines the shore. | |
| Imagination cons the moment o’er, | |
| When first-discovered, awe-struck and amazed, | |
| Scarce loftier Jove—whom men and gods adore— | 25 |
| On the extended earth beneath him gazed, | |
| Temple, and tower, and town, by human insect raised. | |
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| Blow, scented gale, the snowy canvas swell, | |
| And flow, thou silver, eddying current, on. | |
| Grieve we to bid each lovely point farewell, | 30 |
| That, ere its graces half are seen, is gone. | |
| By woody bluff we steal, by leaning lawn, | |
| By palace, village, cot, a sweet surprise, | |
| At every turn the vision breaks upon; | |
| Till to our wondering and uplifted eyes | 35 |
| The Highland rocks and hills in solemn grandeur rise. * * * * * | | | | |
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