Summer By The Lakeside

Lake Winnipesaukee I. NOON.     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,     And softer lights and airs more bland,     And skies, the hollow of Gods hand!     Transfused through you, O mountain friends!     With mine your solemn spirit blends,     And life no more hath separate ends.     I read each misty mountain sign,     I know the voice of wave and pine,     And I am yours, and ye are mine.     Lifes burdens fall, its discords cease,     I lapse into the glad release     Of Natures own exceeding peace.     O welcome calm of heart and mind!     As falls yon fir-trees loosened rind     To leave a tenderer growth behind,     So fall the weary years away;     A child again, my head I lay     Upon the lap of this sweet day.     This western wind hath Lethean powers,     Yon noonday cloud nepenthe showers,     The lake is white with lotus-flowers!     Even Dutys voice is faint and low,     And slumberous Conscience, waking slow,     Forgets her blotted scroll to show.     The Shadow which pursues us all,     Whose ever-nearing steps appall,     Whose voice we hear behind us call,     That Shadow blends with mountain gray,     It speaks but what the light waves say,     Death walks apart from Fear to-day!     Rocked on her breast, these pines and I     Alike on Natures love rely;     And equal seems to live or die.     Assured that He whose presence fills     With light the spaces of these hills     No evil to His creatures wills,     The simple faith remains, that He     Will do, whatever that may be,     The best alike for man and tree.     What mosses over one shall grow,     What light and life the other know,     Unanxious, leaving Him to show. II. EVENING.     Yon mountains side is black with night,     While, broad-orhed, oer 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.     Beneath, lake, wood, and peopled vale,     Hushed by that presence grand and grave,     Are silent, save the crickets wail,     And low response of leaf and wave.     Fair scenes! whereto the Day and Night     Make rival love, I leave ye soon,     What time before the eastern light     The pale ghost of the setting moon     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;     How rising moons shine sad and mild     On wooded isle and silvering bay;     Or setting suns beyond the piled     And purple mountains lead the day;     Nor laughing girl, nor bearding boy,     Nor full-pulsed manhood, lingering here,     Shall add, to lifes abounding joy,     The charmed repose to suffering dear.     Still waits kind Nature to impart     Her choicest gifts to such as gain     An entrance to her loving heart     Through the sharp discipline of pain.     Forever from the Hand that takes     One blessing from us others fall;     And, soon or late, our Father makes     His perfect recompense to all!     Oh, watched by Silence and the Night,     And folded in the strong embrace     Of the great mountains, with the light     Of the sweet heavens upon thy face,     Lake of the Northland! keep thy dower     Of beauty still, and while above     Thy solemn mountains speak of power,     Be thou the mirror of Gods love.