White clouds, whose shadows haunt the deep,
Light mists, whose soft embraces keep
The sunshine on the hills asleep;

O isles of calm, O dark, still wood,
And stiller skies, that overbrood
Your rest with deeper quietude;

O shapes and hues, dim beckoning, through

Yon mountain gaps, my longing view

Beyond the purple and the blue

To stiller sea and greener land,

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5

IO

II. EVENING

Yon mountain's side is black with night;
While, broad-orbed, o'er its gleaming crown
The moon, slow-rounding into sight,

On the hushed inland sea looks down.

How start to light the clustering isles,

Each silver-hemmed! How sharply show

The shadows of their rocky piles

And tree-tops in the wave below!

How far and strange the mountains seem,

Dim-looming through the pale, still light!

The vague, vast grouping of a dream,

They stretch into the solemn night.

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1Ο

Shall hide behind yon rocky spines,

And the young archer, Morn, shall break

His arrows on the mountain pines,

And, golden-sandalled, walk the lake.

Farewell! around this smiling bay

Gay-hearted Health and Life in bloom,
With lighter steps than mine, may stray
In radiant summers yet to come.

But none shall more regretful leave

These waters and these hills than I,

Or, distant, fonder dream how eve

Or dawn is painting wave and sky,

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And ask a draught from the spring that flowed
Through the meadow across the road.

She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up,
And filled for him her small tin cup,

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And blushed as she gave it, looking down

On her feet so bare and her tattered gown.

"Thanks!" said the Judge; "a sweeter draught From a fairer hand was never quaffed."

He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,
Of the singing birds and the humming bees;

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Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether
The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.