English poem
Down The Trail
by Nora May French (1881–1907)
Break camp, the dawn is here! A sea has swept beneath us in the night-- Poured outward in a wrinkled floor of white, And left our eyrie clear. There in the deeps the little trail is curled-- We plunge like divers to the under-world.
The manzanita stirs! Look, in that little thicket just ahead! Down, down, the covey whirrs, Mocking us, careful, led, Slow-slipping beads along a slender thread.
Here the stream flows; Here we tread yellow leaves. (Sun in the sycamores, Sun on the granite walls.) All is so still, Never wind blows, Only the singing stream Shouts little waterfalls.
We round the mighty shoulder of a hill-- Oh, sweet airs damp with ferns! The day is old, the lengthening shadows chill-- The wanderer returns.
Traffic, and wakeful eyes of little lights; The black crowd passing near; and far away A fading rose of sunset hanging low Above the roofs of indigo and grey.
“BELLS FROM OVER THE HILLS SOUND SWEET.”--Russian Proverb.
Oh, when the afternoon is long and hazy, So still the valley lies, so still, so still, With sweeping smoky spirals blue and lazy, With yellow light aglow from hill to hill. Sometimes the echoes startle with my singing; Sometimes a bird the heavy silence fills, And always I can hear them ringing, ringing, My mocking bells, my Bells from over the Hills.
Sweetly, faintly ring they, cruel ring they: “Captive in your prison hear us call!” Message from a life of action bring they, Life beyond these hills more sweet than all. Would that I could heed their call and follow, Waking while this drowsy valley sleeps, Follow Fortune over hill and hollow, Wrest from her the treasures that she keeps!
My freedom gained, what fate would be for telling? Still hills and hills beyond would stretch for aye. Peace in this little valley has its dwelling, And that the chase would profit who shall say? For hopes and dear delights, ah, who can near them? Something ungained, the heart with longing fills, And follow though I might I still should hear them, The mocking bells, the Bells from over the Hills.