Poems (Van Rensselaer)/A Letter from the Low Land
A LETTER FROM THE LOW LAND
Come, dear, come from the fortresses of granite Walling half the world out, half the skies away; Come where the low land, open by the shore-side, Offers to its children what a free land may.
Broad land, level land, leagues of grass and clover, Ranks of shining corn-blade and tall tossed plume,Dark cedar sentinels for long files of forest, Goldenrod afire in a smoke of aster bloom.
Wide lands, winds' lands, level for their coursers Whencesoe'er they come with smell of soil or sea;North winds, west winds, whatsoe'er their quarter, Straight rush their cavalcades—straight, strong, free.
Far mystic meeting-place of world's marge and heaven, Curves the horizon line, perfect to the view;Hill-crest nor mountain-breast breaks the mighty circle— Round lies the planet 'neath a hemisphere of blue.
This is the glory of the level-lying wide lands, This is the splendor that no steep lands know:Glory of the paths where in clear hemicycles, World-rim to world-rim, the constellations go.
Glowing red, golden bright, in the sumptuous west land When the sunsets blossom, they bloom around the sky—Green and amber northward, rosy in the east realm, Amethyst where amethyst the southern waters lie.
Look how the little rains slip across the hay-fields, Dimple on the sea-fields, hurry far away;Look how the long storms, breaking for the twilight, Strew upon the sky-fields windy swathes of gray.
Thunder drums, levin swords, musketry of rainbursts— How the midnight battle-crash the whole vault fills!Day brings the pageant of the white cloud-masses, Lordlier and lovelier than snow-embastioned hills.
Scent of the salt breeze and scent of the clover, Wild rose and clethra and bayberry's breath,Glamor of the sea-shine, witchery of mist wreaths— Hark! they are calling and the summer hasteneth.
Come, dear, come from the shut and hampered valleys, Come where the waves on the long beaches run, Come where the bosom of the warm earth is breathing Cool breaths of ocean in a broad sweep of sun!
Easthampton, 1906.