IN the highlands, in the country places, Where the old plain men have rosy faces, And the young fair maidens Quiet eyes;Where essential silence cheers and blesses, And for ever in the hill-recesses Her more lovely music Broods and dies.
O to mount again where erst I haunted;
Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted, And the low green meadows Bright with sward;And when even dies, the million-tinted, And the night has come, and planets glinted, Lo, the valley hollow Lamp-bestarred!
O to dream, O to awake and wander There, and with delight to take and render, Through the trance of silence, Quiet breath;Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses, Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;Only winds and rivers, Life and death.
