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LINES WRITTEN IN A HIGHLAND GLEN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: To whom belongs this valley fair
Last Line: Is built amid the skies!
Alternate Author Name(s): North, Christopher


To whom belongs this valley fair,
That sleeps beneath the filmy air,
Even like a living thing?
Silent as infant at the breast,
Save a still sound that speaks of rest,
That streamlet's murmuring!

The heavens appear to love this vale;
Here clouds with scarce-seen motion sail,
Or mid the silence lie!
By the blue arch, this beauteous earth,
Mid evening's hour of dewy mirth,
Seems bound unto the sky.

O that this lovely vale were mine!
Then, from glad youth to calm decline,
My years would gently glide;
Hope would rejoice in endless dreams,
And memory's oft-returning gleams
By peace be sanctified.

There would unto my soul be given,
From presence of that gracious heaven,
A piety sublime!
And thoughts would come of mystic mood,
To make in this deep solitude
Eternity of Time!

And did I ask to whom belong'd
This vale? I feel that I have wrong'd
Nature's most gracious soul!
She spreads her glories o'er the earth,
And all her children, from their birth,
Are joint heirs of the whole!

Yea, long as nature's humblest child
Hath kept her temple undefiled
By sinful sacrifice,
Earth's fairest scenes are all his own;
He is a monarch, and His throne
Is built amid the skies!






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