THE LOWLAND WOMAN
Bird-bright were my eyes with watching, as beseemed a mountain-dweller,
Where the besom of the ice-wind scours the clefts, a mist-expeller.
Wise was I in wide-earth places, chinks in rocks, and eagles' nests;
And the canny Alpine mosses clinging to the granites' crests.
Half the world my window showed me. Past the pines in columns gloomy,
Stunted firs the heights have mastered, and a plain-land far and roomy;
Over there a glittering hamlet; over there a rimless sea—
Till the woman left the lowland and came up the hills to me.
Where the besom of the ice-wind scours the clefts, a mist-expeller.
Wise was I in wide-earth places, chinks in rocks, and eagles' nests;
And the canny Alpine mosses clinging to the granites' crests.
Half the world my window showed me. Past the pines in columns gloomy,
Stunted firs the heights have mastered, and a plain-land far and roomy;
Over there a glittering hamlet; over there a rimless sea—
Till the woman left the lowland and came up the hills to me.
In her eyes were rushy meadows, kine among the dusky grasses;
Weeds in mill-streams greenly swaying, where a swallow's shadow passes,
On her bosom ruddy earth-stains, in her hands a valley rose;
On her lips a store of perfumes, garnered where the lily grows.
Weeds in mill-streams greenly swaying, where a swallow's shadow passes,
On her bosom ruddy earth-stains, in her hands a valley rose;
On her lips a store of perfumes, garnered where the lily grows.
