Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HYMN WRITTEN AMONG THE ALPS, by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Creation's god! With thought elate Last Line: Thee, thee, my god, I trace! Subject(s): Alps; Hymns (as Literary Form); Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain) | ||||||||
Creation's God! with thought elate, Thy hand divine I see Impressed on scenes, where all is great, Where all is full of thee! Where stern the Alpine mountains raise Their heads of massive snow; When on the rolling storm I gaze, That hangshow far below! Where on some bold, stupendous height, The Eagle sits alone; Or soaring wings his sullen flight To haunts yet more his own: Where the sharp rock the Chamois treads, Or slippery summit scales; Or where the whitening Snow-bird spreads Her plumes to icy gales: Where the rude cliff's steep column glows With morning's tint of blue; Or evening on the glacier throws The rose's blushing hue: Or where by twilight's softer light, The mountain's shadow bends; And sudden casts a partial night, As black its form descends: Where the full ray of noon alone Down the deep valley falls: Or where the sunbeam never shone Between its rifted walls: Where cloudless regions calm the soul, Bid mortal cares be still, Can passion's wayward wish controul, And rectify the will: Where midst some vast expanse the mind, Which swelling virtue fires, Forgets that earth it leaves behind, And to its heaven aspires: Where far along the desart air Is heard no creature's call: And undisturbing mortal ear The avalanches fall: Where rushing from their snowy source, The daring torrents urge Their loud-toned waters headlong course, And lift their feathered surge: Where swift the lines of light and shade Flit o'er the lucid lake: Or the shrill winds its breast invade, And its green billows wake: Where on the slope, with speckled dye The pigmy herds I scan; Or soothed, the scattered Chalets spy, The last abode of man: Or where the flocks refuse to pass, And the lone peasant mows, Fixed on his knees, the pendent grass, Which down the steep he throws: Where high the dangerous pathway leads Above the gulph profound, From whence the shrinking eye recedes, Nor finds repose around: Where red the mountain-ash reclines Along the clifted rock; Where firm the dark unbending pines The howling tempests mock: Where, level with the ice-ribb'd bound The yellow harvests glow; Or vales with purple vines are crown'd Beneath impending snow: Where the rich min'rals catch the ray, With varying lustre bright, And glittering fragments strew the way With sparks of liquid light: Or where the moss forbears to creep Where loftier summits rear Their untrod snow, and frozen sleep Locks all the uncolour'd year: In every scene, where every hour Sheds some terrific grace, In Nature's vast o'erwhelming power, THEE, THEE, my GOD, I trace! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CALIFORNIA SORROW: MOUNTAIN VIEW by MARY KINZIE CONTRA MORTEM: THE MOUNTAIN FASTNESS by HAYDEN CARRUTH GREEN MOUNTAIN IDYL by HAYDEN CARRUTH IF IT WERE NOT FOR YOU by HAYDEN CARRUTH SONNET TO HOPE by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS SONNET TO THE MOON by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS A FAREWELL, FOR TWO YEARS, TO ENGLAND; A POEM, SELECTION by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS |
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