Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 350=431.= the Prairie
This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.
The skies are blue above my head, 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.
A glimmering plain in drowsy trance 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 cicada's sultry cry, The murmurous dream of bees.
The butterfly—a flying flower— 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.
* * * * *
Far in the East, like low-hung clouds The waving woodlands lie; Far in the West, the glowing plain Melts warmly in the sky; No accent wounds the reverent air, No foot-print dints the sod,— Lone in the light the prairie lies, Rapt in a dream of God.
[Footnote 104: Born in Indiana. Gave up the practice of the law to become Secretary and Aide-de-camp to President Lincoln. Served briefly in the Rebellion war with the rank of Colonel, and was afterward Secretary of Legation at Paris and Madrid, and for some months, Chargé d'Affaires at Vienna. Subsequently applied himself to literature and journalism.]
* * * * *
=Joaquin Miller.=[105]
From "Songs of the Sierras."