Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Larbert

Rural Scenery

By David Macbeth Moir (1798–1851)

RECEDED hills afar of softened blue,

Tall bowering trees, through which the sunbeams shoot

Down to the waveless lake, birds never mute,

And wild-flowers all around of every hue,—

Sure ’t is a lovely scene. There, knee-deep stand,

Safe from the fierce sun, the o’ershadowed kine,

And to the left, where cultured fields expand,

Mid tufts of scented thorn the sheep recline.

Lone quiet farmsteads, haunts that ever please,

O, how inviting to the traveller’s eye

Ye rise on yonder uplands, mid your trees

Of shade and shelter! Every sound from these

Is eloquent of peace, in earth and sky,

And pastoral beauty, and Arcadian ease.