344 Nezv Hampshire' s Lament.
The partridge- vine and pale twin- flower Were carpet woven through that bower,
With many a fern thereby ; A fallen tree before me lay, And just beyond, a little way, A craggy height rose, lichen gray,
Against the glimmering sky.
The quiet hour, the grateful shade, The murmur by the waters made,
Conspired to charm the air ; Or did the elves and sprites, that dwell In hidden nooks of wooded dell. Around me weave their mystic spell •
While idly dreaming there ? ^
I saw, above the rocky height, , ' A queenly form appear in sight,
In shadowy raiment clad. ;
The regal face and calm clear eye i
Looked ever onward through the sky, i
As if intent on purpose high ; j
But all the face was sad. j
•i I heard a voice of deep, low tone, '
Like oak-leaves by the night-breeze blown, I
When all around is still. These mellow accents seemed to flow j
In swaying cadence, to and fro ; And every word, breathed e'er so low, j
Would through the silence thrill. i
( I
" Greenly all my fields are growing, and my silvery streams are flowing ;
Down the daisy-dimpled meadows, through my valleys to the sea ; i
All my woods are green and tender, glowing in the sunlight splendor, ,
While the breeze-inviting shadows underlie each shrub and tree. (
" To the northward, crowned in glory, stand my mountains, grim and hoary, j
Granite-ribbed and granite-crested, with their foreheads to the sky. i
^Vhere the forests dark are leaning o'er the valleys intervening, '
Sylvan lakes, all silver-breasted, mirror-like in beauty lie. I
" On my slopes to southward leading, fearlessly the flocks are feeding ; \
And beneath my lowland willows, quiet reigneth evermore ; '
While, with never-ceasing motion, the old mystery-loving ocean _ •
Rolls his anthem-bearing billows on my echo-haunted shore. |
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