Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/378

 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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