Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ALPINE SONNETS 1: THE GLACIER, by HENRY VAN DYKE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ALPINE SONNETS 1: THE GLACIER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: At dawn in silence moves the mighty stream
Last Line: Of sovereign love, and song began to flow.
Alternate Author Name(s): Civis Americanus
Subject(s): Alps; Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


AT dawn in silence moves the mighty stream,
The silver-crested waves no murmur make;
But far away the avalanches wake
The rumbling echoes, dull as in a dream;
Their momentary thunders, dying, seem
To fall into the stillness, flake by flake,
And leave the hollow air with naught to break
The frozen spell of solitude supreme.

At noon unnumbered rills begin to spring
Beneath the burning sun, and all the walls
Of all the ocean-blue crevasses ring
With liquid lyrics of their waterfalls;
As if a poet's heart had felt the glow
Of sovereign love, and song began to flow.





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