Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/180

 174 NORTH CON WAY.

Listened? Ay, the wondrous beauty Form and color blended, wore,

Seemed a full quartette and chorus, Singing grandly evermore

Soft and sweet and brightly varied

On the Saco s silver thread, Drowsy with the hum of summer,

Marked by Ceres golden tread, With many a rest and bar of sunshine,

Grace-notes of the starwort pale, God decks the calm and clear soprano

Of Conway s lovely intervale.

Deeper, fuller, stronger, slower,

Rising, falling, soberly, Droop the Ledges rocky billows

On the tide of harmony : Holding fast the theme for ever,

Bidding Echo bide her time ; So the alto of the Ledges

Bears its part throughout the chime.

There along the near horizon,

Clear and bare the mighty hills Send their harmony eternal

Down to us on summer rills, Braiding with the silent music

Soundless songs that seem to float Over souls alive with beauty

The tenor of the mountain s note.

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