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| I STOOD upon the hills, when heaven’s wide arch | |
| Was glorious with the sun’s returning march, | |
| And woods were brightened, and soft gales | |
| Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales. | |
| The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light, | 5 |
| They gathered midway round the wooded height, | |
| And, in their fading glory, shone | |
| Like hosts in battle overthrown, | |
| As many a pinnacle, with shifting glance, | |
| Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance, | 10 |
| And rocking on the cliff was left | |
| The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft. | |
| The veil of cloud was lifted, and below | |
| Glowed the rich valley, and the river’s flow | |
| Was darkened by the forest’s shade, | 15 |
| Or glistened in the white cascade; | |
| Where upward, in the mellow blush of day, | |
| The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way. | |
| |
| I heard the distant waters dash, | |
| I saw the current whirl and flash, | 20 |
| And richly, by the blue lake’s silver beach, | |
| The woods were bending with a silent reach. | |
| Then o’er the vale, with gentle swell, | |
| The music of the village bell | |
| Came sweetly to the echo-giving hills; | 25 |
| And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland fills, | |
| Was ringing to the merry shout | |
| That faint and far the glen sent out, | |
| Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin smoke, | |
| Through thick-leaved branches, from the dingle broke. | 30 |
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| If thou art worn and hard beset | |
| With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget, | |
| If thou wouldst read a lesson, that will keep | |
| Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, | |
| Go to the woods and hills! No tears | 35 |
| Dim the sweet look that Nature wears. | |
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