- Out of the hills of Habersham,
- Down the valleys of Hall,
- I hurry amain to reach the plain,
- Run the rapid and leap the fall,
- Split at the rock and together again,
- Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
- And flee from folly on every side
- With a lover’s pain to attain the plain
- Far from the hills of Habersham,
- Far from the valleys of Hall.
- All down the hills of Habersham,
- All through the valleys of Hall,
- The rushes cried Abide, abide,
- The willful waterweeds held me thrall,
- The laving laurel turned my tide,
- The ferns and the fondling grass said Stay,
- The dewberry dipped for to work delay,
- And the little reeds sighed Abide, abide,
- Here in the hills of Habersham,
- Here in the valleys of Hall.
- High o’er the hills of Habersham,
- Veiling the valleys of Hall,
- The hickory told me manifold
- Fair tales of shade, the poplar tall
- Wrought me her shadowy self to hold,
- The chestnut, the oak, the walnut, the pine,
- Overleaning with flickering meaning and sign,
- Said, Pass not, so cold, these manifold
- Deep shades of the hills of Habersham,
- These glades in the valleys of Hall.
- And oft in the hills of Habersham,
- And oft in the valleys of Hall,
- The white quartz shone, and the smooth brook-stone
- Did bar me of passage with friendly brawl,
- And many a luminous jewel lone—
- Crystals clear or a-cloud with mist,
- Ruby, garnet, and amethyst—
- Made lures with the lights of streaming stone
- In the clefts of the hills of Habersham,
- In the beds of the valleys of Hall.
- But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
- And oh, not the valleys of Hall
- Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
- Downward the voices of Duty call—
- Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
- The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
- And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
- And the lordly main from beyond the plain
- Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,
- Calls through the valleys of Hall.
