What is there in those distant hills <br />My fancy longs to see, <br />That many a mood of joy instils? <br />Say what can fancy be? <br /> <br />Do old oaks thicken all the woods, <br />With weeds and brakes as here? <br />Does common water make the floods, <br />That's common everywhere? <br /> <br />Is grass the green that clothes the ground? <br />Are springs the common springs? <br />Daisies and cowslips dropping round, <br />Are such the flowers she brings? <br /> <br />* * * * * <br /> <br />Are cottages of mud and stone, <br />By valley wood and glen, <br />And their calm dwellers little known <br />Men, and but common men, <br /> <br />That drive afield with carts and ploughs? <br />Such men are common here, <br />And pastoral maidens milking cows <br />Are dwelling everywhere. <br /> <br />If so my fancy idly clings <br />To notions far away, <br />And longs to roam for common things <br />All round her every day, <br /> <br />Right idle would the journey be <br />To leave one's home so far, <br />And see the moon I now can see <br />And every little star. <br /> <br />And have they there a night and day, <br />And common counted hours? <br />And do they see so far away <br />This very moon of ours? <br /> <br />* * * * * <br /> <br />I mark him climb above the trees <br />With one small [comrade] star, <br />And think me in my reveries-- <br />He cannot shine so far. <br /> <br />* * * * * <br /> <br />The poets in the tales they tell <br />And with their happy powers <br />Have made lands where their fancies dwell <br />Seem better lands than ours. <br /> <br />Why need I sigh far hills to see <br />If grass is their array, <br />While here the little paths go through <br />The greenest every day? <br /> <br />Such fancies fill the restless mind, <br />At once to cheat and cheer <br />With thought and semblance undefined, <br />Nowhere and everywhere.<br /><br />John Clare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/distant-hills/
