Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECHO NOTCH, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECHO NOTCH, by                    
First Line: "grim mountain sprite! That, robed in woods"
Last Line: "we leave thee, in dumb mystery, / dread sprite! To heave that hoary bulk forever"
Subject(s): "mount Desert, Maine;


GRIM mountain Sprite! that, robed in woods,
Dost sit among these hills, their rightful king,
Forgive the wight who rashly dares
To vex thy silence with his questioning.

Adown thy steep and rugged flanks
The black fir glooms and the pale aspens quiver,
And o'er thy glistening, wind-swept cliffs
The mossy, perfumed streamlets leap forever.

We call to thee: our feeble cry
Dies 'gainst the rocky faces of thy throne;
And from thy shaggy bosom comes
Thine answer, deep-voiced as an organ-tone.

In that broad breast no human heart
To human pulses answereth again:
The wandering wretch, in wood-paths lost,
To thy stern face for pity looks in vain.

Within that sphinx-like face we fain
Would read the riddle of life's fleeting story, --
Thy calm eternal would we grasp,
And gild our gloom with thy far-shining glory.

But thou! thou gazest on the sea,
With fir-crowned, stony brow that changes never:
We leave thee, in dumb mystery,
Dread sprite! to heave that hoary bulk forever.





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