Cresting the hill, brimming the level plain,

The miracle of the flower and milk and kernel,

Nurtured by sun-fire and frost-fire supernal,

Until the farmer turns it in his hand,

The million-millioned miracle of the land.

And yet with all these pastoral and heroic graces,

Our simplest flowers wear the loveliest faces;

The sparrows are our most enraptured singers,

And round their songs the fondest memory lingers;

Our forests tower and tremble, star-enchanted,