I know a country laced with roads, <br />They join the hills and they span the brooks, <br />They weave like a shuttle between broad fields, <br />And slide discreetly through hidden nooks. <br />They are canopied like a Persian dome <br />And carpeted with orient dyes. <br />They are myriad-voiced, and musical, <br />And scented with happiest memories. <br />O Winding roads that I know so well, <br />Every twist and turn, every hollow and hill! <br />They are set in my heart to a pulsing tune <br />Gay as a honey-bee humming in June. <br />'T is the rhythmic beat of a horse's feet <br />And the pattering paws of a sheep-dog bitch; <br />'T is the creaking trees, and the singing breeze, <br />And the rustle of leaves in the road-side ditch. <br /> <br />A cow in a meadow shakes her bell <br />And the notes cut sharp through the autumn air, <br />Each chattering brook bears a fleet of leaves <br />Their cargo the rainbow, and just now where <br />The sun splashed bright on the road ahead <br />A startled rabbit quivered and fled. <br />O Uphill roads and roads that dip down! <br />You curl your sun-spattered length along, <br />And your march is beaten into a song <br />By the softly ringing hoofs of a horse <br />And the panting breath of the dogs I love. <br />The pageant of Autumn follows its course <br />And the blue sky of Autumn laughs above. <br /> <br />And the song and the country become as one, <br />I see it as music, I hear it as light; <br />Prismatic and shimmering, trembling to tone, <br />The land of desire, my soul's delight. <br />And always it beats in my listening ears <br />With the gentle thud of a horse's stride, <br />With the swift-falling steps of many dogs, <br />Following, following at my side. <br />O Roads that journey to fairyland! <br />Radiant highways whose vistas gleam, <br />Leading me on, under crimson leaves, <br />To the opaline gates of the Castles of Dream.<br /><br />Amy Lowell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/roads/
