A silvery sheet with spaces of soft blue;

A trembling vail of gauze is stretch’d athwart

The shadowy hill-sides and dark forest-flanks;

A soothing quiet broods upon the air,

And the faint sunshine winks with drowsiness.

Far sounds melt mellow on the ear: the bark—

The bleat—the tinkle—whistle—blast of horn—

The rattle of the wagon-wheel—the low—

The fowler’s shot—the twitter of the bird,

And e’en the hum of converse from the road.