A MOUNTAIN soul, she shines in crystal air Above the smokes and clamors of the town. Her pure, majestic brows serenely wear The stars for crown. The buzzing wings of folly, slander, spite, Fall frozen in her alien atmosphere. Her heart's at home with sunrise and with night As neighbors dear Who tell her ancient tales of time and law, The miracle of love breathed into dust, Until her sweet gray eyes are brimmed with awe And steadfast trust. Remote she dwells mid her celestial kin, Rainbow and Moon and Cloud, yet none the less Full many a weak earth-creature shelters in Her friendliness. She comrades with the child, the bird, the fern, Poet and sage and rustic chimney-nook, But Pomp must be a pilgrim ere he earn Her mountain look, -- Her mountain look, the candor of the snow, The strength of folded granite, and the calm Of choiring pines, whose swayed green branches strow A healing balm. Oft as the psalmist lifted up his eyes Unto the hills about Jerusalem, Did not God's glory with a new surprise Transfigure them? That royal harper, passionate for rest, Held one still summit dearest to his dream, But only to the golden chords confessed Its hour supreme; For lovely is a mountain rosy-lit With dawn, or steeped in sunshine, azure-hot, But loveliest when shadows traverse it And stain it not. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BALLAD WHICH ANNE ASKEW MADE AND SANG WHEN SHE WAS IN NEWGATE by ANNE ASKEWE AFTER A JOURNEY by THOMAS HARDY TO WORDSWORTH by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS WINTER WITH THE GULF STREAM by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE GIRL OF ALL PERIODS; AN IDYLL by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE FALLING ASLEEP by SIEGFRIED SASSOON WATER WOMAN by JOSEPH AUSLANDER PROLOGUE TO DRAMA ..... ANNIVERSARY OF CARRS' MARRIAGE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |