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| AROUND this lovely valley rise | |
| The purple hills of Paradise. | |
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| O, softly on you banks of haze, | |
| Her rosy face the Summer lays! | |
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| Becalmed along the azure sky, | 5 |
| The argosies of cloudland lie, | |
| Whose shores, with many a shining rift, | |
| Far off their pearl-white peaks uplift. | |
| Through all the long midsummer-day | |
| The meadow-sides are sweet with hay. | 10 |
| I seek the coolest sheltered seat, | |
| Just where the field and forest meet,— | |
| Where grow the pine-trees tall and bland, | |
| The ancient oaks austere and grand, | |
| And fringy roots and pebbles fret | 15 |
| The ripple of the rivulet. | |
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| I watch the mowers, as they go | |
| Through the tall grass, a white-sleeved row. | |
| With even stroke their scythes they swing, | |
| In tune their merry whetstones ring. | 20 |
| Behind the nimble youngsters run, | |
| And toss the thick swaths in the sun. | |
| The cattle graze, while, warm and still, | |
| Slopes the broad pasture, basks the hill, | |
| And bright, where summer breezes break, | 25 |
| The green wheat crinkles like a lake. | |
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| The butterfly and humblebee | |
| Come to the pleasant woods with me; | |
| Quickly before me runs the quail, | |
| Her chickens skulk behind the rail; | 30 |
| High up the lone wood-pigeon sits, | |
| And the woodpecker pecks and flits. | |
| Sweet woodland music sinks and swells, | |
| The brooklet rings its tinkling bells, | |
| The swarming insects drone and hum, | 35 |
| The partridge beats its throbbing drum. | |
| The squirrel leaps among the boughs, | |
| And chatters in his leafy house. | |
| The oriole flashes by; and, look! | |
| Into the mirror of the brook, | 40 |
| Where the vain bluebird trims his coat, | |
| Two tiny feathers fall and float. | |
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| As silently, as tenderly, | |
| The down of peace descends on me. | |
| O, this is peace! I have no need | 45 |
| Of friend to talk, of book to read: | |
| A dear Companion here abides; | |
| Close to my thrilling heart He hides; | |
| The holy silence is His Voice: | |
| I lie and listen, and rejoice. | 50 |
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