HERE on this high top far above the world— This mute and glorious scene, earth's panorama [The swelling mountains, all in green and gold, Round-topped, or broken into savage crags; The valleys scarcely shown, like narrow rifts; The slate-dark shadows, and the tarns and lakes, And vistas over them to sunny lands Of tiny patchwork, with quaint fields and farms, White sails on waters, and the sun-splashed sea:] Here on this high top dreaming, to it all I find but one fit likeness— Namely the gracious form of her I love. The limbs and hair, the lips, the eyes, I love— Twin heavenlit lakes— And undulant lines that run from hips to shoulder; Fair world of hollow and rondure, hill and plain,— So solid-fair like this, so dewy-fragrant, And all inwrought with that dear life that holds me. How calm this air! this silence here in heaven Calm blue, and tender hanging clouds delaying To kiss their shadows on the hills' deep breasts; And far around this dream of human presence— Nature, and my sweet Helpmate whom I worship, With the dear god that dwells behind them both. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AFFIRMATION by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE PARTY by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR KARMA by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON CIRCUS AT NIGHT by MADELEINE AARON THE MORAL FABLES: THE SWALLOW, AND THE OTHER BIRDS by AESOP THE MAGIC MIRROR by HENRY MILLS ALDEN POEM FOR PICTURE: TO A PORTRAIT BY EDWARD STEICHEN (RACHMANINOFF) by FRANK ANKENBRAND JR. |