The Mountains

Hark to the sound of the sea! Pressed in the hills like a pearl, The mountains are dreaming of me, And the winds of the soft, green world.

They whisper a lullaby sweet, In valleys of silence and shade; And I wander, with soft, noiseless feet, Where the song of the bird never fades.

I know not the purpose of dreams, Nor the end of the night’s mystery; But the heavens are bright with their beams, And I see, in the silence, I see.

So glorious the message that they bring, Floating down to the valley’s end; The mountains are dreaming the thoughts of the spring, While they beckon the stars to descend.

• Paul Laurence Dunbar