I lay where the winds were seeking
The nooks of the streams they love;
The shadows were slowly shifting
With the great white clouds above.
Afar in the hazy distance
The slanting sunlight fell,
And meadow and field and woodland
Were underneath its spell.
Beneath me the long sweet valley
Lay wide to the dreaming eye,
And through it the river was shining
Like a mirror turned up to the sky.
The winds in fitful pauses,
Came slowly up the stream,
They touched the ferns with their footsteps
Then left them again to dream.
The thick green grass beside me,
At once with life grew full;
The blue-bells nodded together,
And a ripple ran over the pool.
It was a time for a dreamer
To have no thoughts of men,
To let the fancy go backward
To the early time again.
When field and meadow and woodland,
And the golden stream at my feet,
Lay warm in the light of boyhood
And a glory once so sweet.