New Poems

by Charles G.D. Roberts

 

HILL TOP SONGS

 

I

HERE on the hill
At last the soul sees clear.
Desire being still
The High Unseen appear.
The thin grass bends
5
One way, and hushed attends
Unknown and gracious ends.
Where the sheep’s pasturing feet
Have cleft the sods
The mystic light lies sweet;
10
The very clods,
In purpling hues elate,
Thrill to their fate;
The high rock-hollows wait,
Expecting gods.
15

 

II

WHEN the lights come out in the cottages
    Along the shores at eve,
And across the darkening water
    The last pale shadows leave;

And up from the rock-ridged pasture slopes
20
    The sheep-bell tinklings steal,
And the folds are shut, and the shepherds
    Turn to their quiet meal;

And even here, on the unfenced height,
    No journeying wind goes by,
25
But the earth-sweet smells, and the home-sweet sounds,
Mount, like prayer, to the sky;

Then from the door of my opened heart
    Old blindness and pride are driven,
Till I know how high is the humble,
30
    The dear earth how close to heaven.