743. In the Highlands

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 chills 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-bestarr’d!

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.