The speaker has just reached a mountaintop and looks down into a sunlit valley. Everything appears lovely from this height: golden farms, olive hills, green meadows, small towns, and delicate church spires. The language gives the landscape a romantic, almost flirtatious life—the farms lie “bare-bosomed to the courting sky,” and the spires seem to long for leaves and blossoms. There is genuine pleasure in the scene, but the final lines add a wry twist. The speaker is sitting comfortably in a car, enjoying the beauty while the people down in the valley are working. So the mood is warm and idyllic, but also lightly amused and self-aware: the valley is easiest to admire from a distance, especially when someone else is doing the labor.
Songs About Life and Brighter Things Yet XLII — Summary
Now the mountain top is won, Behold the valley in the sun — The gold and yellow farms that lie Bare-bosomed to the courting sky; The olive hills, the meadows green. The towns that punctuate the scene; The little spires that seem to cry For leaves and blossoms to the sky. So delicate, it seems the breeze Must stir them like the willow trees. Ah, happy vale, how sweet you are, As I observe you from this car; How pleasant here to sit and shirk And know your dwellers are at work!