Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Middle States: Amenia, N. Y.

Amenia

By Horatio Nelson Powers (1826–1890)

(Excerpt)

A PLEASANT vale; bright fields that lie

On gentle slopes and knolls of green;

Steep mountains sharp against the sky;

Clear streams and tiny lakes between.

Cool bowery lanes ’mong happy hills;

Old groves that shade ancestral eaves;

Farms which the prosperous season fills

With flocks, and fruits, and golden sheaves.

A holy feeling soothes the air,

The woodlands stand in musings sweet,

It seems as if the heart of prayer

In all this charméd valley beat.

The hills are voiced with sacred speech,

The meadows bloom with sweet desire,

From mountains kindred spirits reach

To clasp the glory streaming higher.

In every path I see the trace

Of feet that made the landscape dear;

In every flower I feel the grace

Of lives that purely blossomed here.

*****