Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BECKONING HILLS, by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BECKONING HILLS, by                    
First Line: On a motto that hangs by my desk I can read
Last Line: The peace that my nature would find.
Subject(s): Contentment; Mountains; Nature; Poetry & Poets; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


On a motto that hangs by my desk I can read
That contentment is what men should learn,
For the things which we have are all that we need,
And 'tis vain for us mortals to yearn.
But when I gaze through my window and see
The glories of Nature as shown
In the range of blue hills which beckon to me,
My hopes of contentment have flown.

When I'm cramped 'twixt four walls there is no peace of mind,
For memory leads me a chase,
Over hilltops and crags which oft I have climbed
'Midst those hills whose blue outlines I trace.
To my ears they're as still as the silence of death,
Yet my heart seems to burst with the sound
Of the call that they make, and the winds waft a breath
Of the freedom which there doth abound.

What rhythmical verse, what outburst of song
Which a poet might pen, can compare
With the voice of the hills as they cry "Come along,
O poet, and breathe in our air?"
I, for one, cannot hear that call of the wild,
And find in contentment a theme,
Nor can I remain and be reconciled,
And only of such freedom dream.

I must up and away, those hills beckon to me,
I yearn for my pinnacled nests
High up in their tops, overlooking the sea,
My soul at restraint now protests.
No mottoes I need to teach me content,
I spurn such a word, when behind
The walls of a house, for these hills represent
The peace that my nature would find.





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