dots-menu
×

Home  »  Specimens of American Poetry  »  James A. Jones (1791–1854)

Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.

By The Lay of a Mountain Spirit

James A. Jones (1791–1854)

I HEARD the Spirit of a Mountain

Discoursing with a lowland Fay.

They sat beside a prattling fountain,

Just ere the cock proclaim’d the day.

The Mountain Spirit bears a pine,

Sere neighbor to an iron mine—

His locks the rock-moss gray.

The little urchin shakes a vine,

Whereon the rich black clusters shine,

And carols he a lay,

Which bids his mountain listeners note

The joys that o’er the valley float.