"Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids"

Author: William Cullen Bryant  | Date: 1820

OH FAIREST OF THE RURAL MAIDS

Oh fairest of the rural maids!

Thy birth was in the forest shades;

Green boughs, and glimpses of the sky,

Were all that met thine infant eye.

Thy sports, thy wanderings, when a child,

Were ever in the sylvan wild;

And all the beauty of the place

Is in thy heart and on thy face.

The twilight of the trees and rocks

Is in the light shade of thy locks;

Thy step is as the wind, that weaves

Its playful way among the leaves.

Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene

And silent waters heaven is seen;

Their lashes are the herbs that look

On their young figures in the brook.

The forest depths, by foot unpressed,

Are not more sinless than thy breast;

The holy peace, that fills the air

Of those calm solitudes, is there.

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Chicago: William Cullen Bryant, "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids" Original Sources, accessed March 29, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=D4AKRFVTAFH7EM6.

MLA: Bryant, William Cullen. "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids", Original Sources. 29 Mar. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=D4AKRFVTAFH7EM6.

Harvard: Bryant, WC, "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids". Original Sources, retrieved 29 March 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=D4AKRFVTAFH7EM6.