The Lakeside

THE SHADOWS round the inland sea

Are deepening into night;

Slow up the slopes of Ossipee

They chase the lessening light.

Tired of the long day’s blinding heat,

I rest my languid eye,

Lake of the Hills! where, cool and sweet,

Thy sunset waters lie!

Along the sky, in wavy lines,

O’er isle and reach and bay,

Green-belted with eternal pines,

The mountains stretch away.

Below, the maple masses sleep

Where shore with water blends,

While midway on the tranquil deep

The evening light descends.

So seemed it when yon hill’s red crown,

Of old, the Indian trod,

And, through the sunset air, looked down

Upon the Smile of God.

To him of light and shade the laws

No forest skeptic taught;

Their living and eternal Cause

His truer instinct sought.

He saw these mountains in the light

Which now across them shines;

This lake, in summer sunset bright,

Walled round with sombering pines.

God near him seemed; from earth and skies

His loving voice he heard,

As, face to face, in Paradise,

Man stood before the Lord.

Thanks, O our Father! that, like him,

Thy tender love I see,

In radiant hill and woodland dim,

And tinted sunset sea.

For not in mockery dost Thou fill

Our earth with light and grace;

Thou hid’st no dark and cruel will

Behind Thy smiling face!

1849.