THE skies are blue above my head, The prairie green below, And flickering o'er the tufted grass The shifting shadows go, Vague-sailing, where the feathery clouds Fleck white the tranquil skies, Black javelins darting where aloft The whirring pheasant flies. A glimmering plain in drowsy trance The dim horizon bounds, Where all the air is resonant With sleepy summer sounds, -- The life that sings among the flowers, The lisping of the breeze, The hot cicala's sultry cry, The murmurous dream of bees. The butterfly -- a flying flower -- Wheels swift in flashing rings, And flutters round his quiet kin, With brave flame-mottled wings. The wild Pinks burst in crimson fire, The Phlox' bright clusters shine, And Prairie-Cups are swinging free To spill their airy wine. And lavishly beneath the sun, In liberal splendor rolled, The Fennel fills the dipping plain With floods of flowery gold; And widely weaves the Iron-Weed A woof of purple dyes Where Autumn's royal feet may tread When bankrupt Summer flies. In verdurous tumult far away The prairie-billows gleam, Upon their crests in blessing rests The noontide's gracious beam. Low quivering vapors steaming dim The level splendors break Where languid Lilies deck the rim Of some land-circled lake. Far in the East like low-hung clouds The waving woodlands lie; Far in the West the glowing plain Melts warmly in the sky. No accent wounds the reverent air, No footprint dints the sod, -- Lone in the light the prairie lies, Rapt in a dream of God. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY LITTLE GARDEN by GWENDOLEN ALLEN COMMENDATORY VERSE FOR THE FAERIE QUEENE by H. B. THE VOLCANIC ISLAND by CLIFFORD BAX PSALM 21. DOMINE IN VIRTUTE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE WORKING MAN'S SONG by JOHN STUART BLACKIE THE PROPHECY OF ST. ORAN by MATHILDE BLIND THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 24, ASKING FOR HER HEART (2) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS: BOOK 2. THE SECOND SONG by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |