University of Virginia Library


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WHEN YOU AND I WERE SINGERS IN THE MOUNTAINS

The Forest-Ranger's Courtship

When you and I were singers, were singers in these mountains,
A million and a million years ago,
We built a nest of silk
From the fireweed of these mountains,
And sang and sang, and saw the summers go.
When you and I were singers, were singers in these mountains,
We built our nest in echoing Indian Pass,
But we called it in bird-language:—
“The place of echoing grass.”
The longest sweetest echo the world of birds may know,
We heard there, we heard there long ago.
We could sing long sweet sentences
And hear the whole come back—
A whispering of trembling lovers' words,
A whispering of ardent little birds.
When you and I were singers, were singers in these mountains,

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We were just such mountain larks as sing at dawn,
Now making great cantatas with a chorus of dim echoes,
Calling sweet lovers to this sacred lawn,
Saying: “Set free your hearts and sing to the dawn!”