| |
| IN the warm blue heart of the hills | |
| My beautiful, beautiful one | |
| Sleeps where he laid him down | |
| Before the journey was done. | |
| |
| All the long summer day | 5 |
| The ghosts of noon draw nigh, | |
| And the tremulous aspens hear | |
| The footing of winds go by. | |
| |
| Down to the gates of the sea, | |
| Out of the gates of the west, | 10 |
| Journeys the whispering river | |
| Before the place of his rest. | |
| |
| The road he loved to follow | |
| When June came by his door, | |
| Out through the dim blue haze | 15 |
| Leads, but allures no more. | |
| |
| The trailing shadows of clouds | |
| Steal from the slopes and are gone; | |
| The myriad life in the grass | |
| Stirs, but he slumbers on; | 20 |
| |
| The inland wandering tern | |
| Skreel as they forage and fly; | |
| His loons on the lonely reach | |
| Utter their querulous cry; | |
| |
| Over the floating lilies | 25 |
| A dragon-fly tacks and steers; | |
| Far in the depth of the blue | |
| A martin settles and veers; | |
| |
| To every roadside thistle | |
| A gold-brown butterfly clings; | 30 |
| But he no more companions | |
| All the dear vagrant things. | |
| |
| The strong red journeying sun, | |
| The pale and wandering rain, | |
| Will roam on the hills forever | 35 |
| And find him never again. | |
| |
| Then twilight falls with the touch | |
| Of a hand that soothes and stills, | |
| And a swamp-robin sings into light | |
| The lone white star of the hills. | 40 |
| |
| Alone in the dusk he sings, | |
| And a burden of sorrow and wrong | |
| Is lifted up from the earth | |
| And carried away in his song. | |
| |
| Alone in the dusk he sings, | 45 |
| And the joy of another day | |
| Is folded in peace and borne | |
| On the drift of years away. | |
| |
| But there in the heart of the hills | |
| My beautiful weary one | 50 |
| Sleeps where he laid him down; | |
| And the long sweet night is begun. | |
| |
