Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
The Prairie
By John Hay (1838–1905)T
The prairie green below,
And flickering o’er the tufted grass
The shifting shadows go,
Vague-sailing, where the feathery clouds
Fleck white the tranquil skies,
Black javelins darting where aloft
The whirring pheasant flies.
The dim horizon bounds,
Where all the air is resonant
With sleepy summer sounds,—
The life that sings among the flowers,
The lisping of the breeze,
The hot cicala’s sultry cry,
The murmurous dream of bees.
Wheels swift in flashing rings,
And flutters round his quiet kin,
With brave flame-mottled wings.
The wild pinks burst in crimson fire,
The phlox’ bright clusters shine,
And prairie-cups are swinging free
To spill their airy wine.
In liberal splendor rolled,
The fennel fills the dipping plain
With floods of flowery gold;
And widely weaves the iron-weed
A woof of purple dyes
Where Autumn’s royal feet may tread
When bankrupt Summer flies.
The prairie-billows gleam,
Upon their crests in blessing rests
The noontide’s gracious beam.
Low quivering vapors steaming dim
The level splendors break
Where languid lilies deck the rim
Of some land-circled lake.
The waving woodlands lie;
Far in the west the glowing plain
Melts warmly in the sky.
No accent wounds the reverent air,
No footprint dints the sod,—
Lone in the light the prairie lies,
Wrapt in a dream of God.