Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Charles GoodrichWhiting

812 Blue Hills beneath the Haze

BLUE hills beneath the haze

That broods o’er distant ways,

Whether ye may not hold

Secrets more dear than gold,—

This is the ever new

Puzzle within your blue.

Is ’t not a softer sun

Whose smiles yon hills have won?

Is ’t not a sweeter air

That folds the fields so fair?

Is ’t not a finer rest

That I so fain would test?

The far thing beckons most,

The near becomes the lost.

Not what we have is worth,

But that which has no birth

Or breath within the ken

Of transitory men.