Happy days; carolings of Colorado, etc.

Chapter 16: A HAPPY LOITERER

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About This Book

A collection of lyrical poems and brief prose sketches that celebrate Colorado's natural scenery and frontier memories. The verses praise mountain and prairie landscapes, clear skies, rivers and woodlands, and combine joyful exhortation, pastoral reverie, and rustic reminiscence of early regional life. Imagery of angling, hunting, camping, and seasonal pleasures recurs alongside reflections on gladness, love, and simple living. Short prose pieces offer travel-minded vignettes of lakes and mountain canyons, together creating an overall tone of affectionate local portraiture and unpretentious lyricism.

A HAPPY LOITERER

Beneath our blue Colorado skies,

Where tall mountains gladden eyes,

Here I seek the care-free muse

Till life’s burdens all I lose.

Far away from Sorrow’s brood,

How I love serene, sweet Solitude!

What to me is worldling’s strife,

While I lead this placid, unobtrusive life?

Men or crosses, men of rules,

Teach me not in Trouble’s schools.

Wilful truant, I would lie

Listening to the wild-bird’s melody.

In my forest by the stream

Let me worship, let me dream,

Loving Nature and her ways,

I would court her all my days.