EASTER IN THE WHITE HILLS by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR

HARK! where the cliffs are lost in clouds
That float to the Realm of Souls,
'The Lord is risen!' from peak to peak
In rapturous echo rolls!
Through Waumbek's templed land it rings
From Winnipesaukee's side
To far Coös, whose crystal lakes
Dower Androscoggin's tide,
And brim serene Connecticut,
Of mount and main the pride.

Agi'ochook from his altars
To spired Chocorua calls,
And broad Moosil'auk sends the cry
Back from his buttressed walls;
Franconia answers full and clear
With myriad airy voices,
And a glory lights the great Stone-Face
While all the pass rejoices;
And south, the towering sentinels —
Monadnock's lonely fane,
And domed Kearsarge, by Merrimack —
Swell the celestial strain,
Till the sky is filled with the choral notes
Of the jubilant refrain!

And lo! the rush and roar of streams
Freed from their icy prison!
Saco to Pemigewasset
Proclaims, 'The Lord is risen!'
'Is risen!' sings Ammonoosuc,
To the meadows foaming down;
'Is risen!' the waking brooks reply,
In the glens yet bare and brown.
The sun comes over Katahdin
With flame for every crest —
Flame and rose for the stainless snows
That deep on the summits rest;
And peak and cloud in the golden rays
Shine fair as Tabor's sheen,
When heaven embosomed the lonely hill
And God of man was seen.

Through the sombre firs the west wind sighs
And chants to larch and pine
'The Lord is risen!' till echoes steal
To the forest's inmost shrine.
And list! from the maple boughs a song
The angel choir might heed —
A wild-wood robin warbling sweet,
'The Lord is risen indeed!'
And thus, with grandest symphonies,
And song the soul that thrills,
Comes Easter, golden, glorious,
To Waumbek's templed hills.

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