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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON THE PRAIRIE by HERBERT BATES

First Line: BARE, LOW, TAWNY HILLS
Last Line: BUT WHEN WILL THE EARTH RESPOND?
Subject(s): FIELDS; GRASS; MOUNTAINS; PRAIRIES; SUNFLOWERS; PASTURES; MEADOWS; LEAS; HILLS; DOWNS (GREAT BRITAIN); PLAINS;

BARE, low, tawny hills
With bluer heights beyond,
And the air is sweet with spring,
But when will the earth respond?

Prairie that rolls for leagues,
Dusky and golden-pale,
Like a stirless sea of waves,
Unbroken by ship or sail.

The hollows are dark with brush,
And black with the wash of showers,
And ragged with bleaching wreck
Of the ranks of the tall sunflowers.

No cloud in the blue, no stir
Save the shrill of the wind in the grass,
And the meadow-lark's note, and the call
Of the wind-borne crows that pass.

Bare, low, tawny hills,
With bluer heights beyond,
And the air is sweet with spring,
But when will the earth respond?



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