Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE HILLS, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE HILLS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: For weeks the clouds had raked the hills
Last Line: Beyond the wall of mountains!
Subject(s): Ossipee (lake), New Hampshire; White Mountains, New Hampshire


FOR weeks the clouds had raked the hills
And vexed the vales with raining,
And all the woods were sad with mist,
And all the brooks complaining.

At last, a sudden night-storm tore
The mountain veils asunder,
And swept the valley clean before
The besom of the thunder.

Through Sandwich notch the west-wind sang
Good morrow to the cotter;
And once again Chocorua's horn
Of shadow pierced the water.

Above his broad lake Ossipee,
Once more the sunshine wearing,
Stooped, tracing on that silver shield
His grim armorial bearing.

Clear drawn against the hard blue sky
The peaks had winter's keenness;
And, close on autumn's frost, the vales
Had more than June's fresh greenness.

Again the sodden forest floors
With golden lights were checkered,
Once more rejoicing leaves in wind
And sunshine danced and flickered.

It was as if the summer's late
Atoning for its sadness
Had borrowed every season's charm
To end its days in gladness.

I call to mind those banded vales
Of shadow and of shining,
Through which, my hostess at my side,
I drove in day's declining.

We held our sideling way above
The river's whitening shallows,
By homesteads old, with wide-flung barns
Swept through and through by swallows, --

By maple orchards, belts of pine
And larches climbing darkly
The mountain slopes, and, over all,
The great peaks rising starkly.

You should have seen that long hill-range
With gaps of brightness riven, --
How through each pass and hollow streamed
The purpling lights of heaven, --

Rivers of gold-mist flowing down
From far celestial fountains, --
The great sun flaming through the rifts
Beyond the wall of mountains!





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