Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Descriptive Poems: III. PlacesSong of the Chattahoochee
Sidney Lanier (1842–1881)O
Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall,
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With a lover’s pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys of Hall.
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried, “Abide, abide,”
The wilful water-weeds held me thrall,
The loving laurel turned my tide,
The ferns and fondling grass said “Stay,”
The dewberry dipped for to work delay,
And the little reeds sighed, “Abide, abide,”
Here in the hills of Habersham,
Here in the valleys of Hall.
Veiling the valleys of Hall,
The hickory told me manifold
Fair tales of shade; the poplar tall
Wrought me her shadowy self to hold;
The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,
Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign,
Said, “Pass not, so cold, these manifold
Deep shades of the hills of Habersham,
These glades in the valleys of Hall.”
And oft in the valleys of Hall,
The white quartz shone, and the smooth brookstone
Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl;
And many a luminous jewel alone—
Crystal clear or a-cloud with mist,
Ruby, or garnet, or amethyst—
Made lures with the lights of streaming stone
In the clefts of the hills of Habersham,
In the beds of the valleys of Hall.
And oh! not the valleys of Hall
Avail; I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward the voices of duty call;
Downward to toil and be mixed with the main;
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.