Arthur Guiterman

Hills

I never loved your plains!--
Your gentle valleys,
Your drowsy country lanes
And pleachéd alleys.
 
I want my hills! -- the trail
That scorns the hollow.--
Up, up the ragged shale
Where few will follow,
 
Up, over wooded crest
And mossy bowlder
With strong thigh, heaving chest,
And swinging shoulder,
 
So let me hold my way,
By nothing halted,
Until, at close of day,
I stand, exalted,
 
High on my hills of dream--
Dear hills that know me!
And then, how fair will seem
The lands below me,
 
How pure, at vesper-time,
The far bells chiming!
God, give me hills to climb,
And strength for climbing!