SONG OF TheCHATTAHooCHEE

BY SIDNEY LANIER

1. Out of the hills of Habersham,

Down the valleys of Hall,

I hurry amain to reach the plain,

Run the rapid and leap the fall,

Split at the rock and together again,

Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,

And flee from folly on every side

With a lover’s pain to attain the plain

Far from the hills of Habersham,

Far from the valleys of Hall.

2. All down the hills of Habersham,

All through the valleys of Hall,

The rushes cried, “Abide, abide,”

The willful waterweeds held me thrall,

Thelaving laurel turned my tide,

The ferns and the fondling grass said, “Stay,

The dewberry dippedto work delay,

And the little reeds sighed, “Abide, abide,

Here in the hills of Habersham,

Here in the valleys of Hall.”

3. High o’er the hills of Habersham,

Veiling the valleys of Hall,

The hickory told memanifold

Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall

Wrought me her shadowy self to hold,

The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,

Overleaning, with flickering meaning and sign

Said, “Pass not, so cold, these manifold

Deep shades of the hills of Habersham,

These glades in the valleys of Hall.”

4. And oft in the hills of Habersham,

And oft in the valleys of Hall,

The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook stone

Didbar me of passage with friendly brawl,

And many aluminous jewel lone

—Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist,

Ruby, garnet, and amethyst—

Madelures with the lights of streaming stone

In the clefts of the hills of Habersham,

In the beds of the v alleys of Hall.

5. But oh, not the hills of Habersham,

And oh, not the valleys of Hall

Avail: I amfain for to water the plain.

Downward the voices of Duty call—

Downward, to toil and be mixed with themain ,

The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn

And amyriad flowers mortally yearn

And the lordly main from beyond the plain,

Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,

Calls through the valleys of Hall.

—From “Poems of Sidney Lanier,” uiDG6dYDoNjzUIKQ9sFa9XLISOx1p/CEWW1W/TiKuPRdYylKsCDRQhyBtk1h1EEJ