Giving the land a voice

Kent Falls, in the Litchfield Hills, foothills of the Berkshires

“New England waterfalls like this one {in Kent Falls State Park, Kent., Conn.}, with their white plumes spilling downward from step to step, remind one of the age and gentleness of New England mountains, and, where they flow, they give the land a voice….Even those less vast than the enormous cataracts of Niagara or Yosemite have their own prodigy and their own cadence — and if you listen carefully…you can hear the white voice of New England among the green.’’

From “New England Waterfall,’’ by novelist and critic Robie Macauley (1919-95, in Arthur Griffin’s New England.