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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BEYOND by ROSE TERRY COOKE

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE STRANGER WANDERING IN THE SWITZER'S LAND
Last Line: LIETH THINE ITALY.
Subject(s): ALPS; MOUNTAINS; SWITZERLAND; HILLS; DOWNS (GREAT BRITAIN); SWISS;
THE stranger wandering in the Switzer's land,
Before its awful mountain-tops afraid, --
Who yet, with patient toil, hath gained his stand
On the bare summit where all life is stayed;

Sees far, far down, beneath his blood-dimmed eyes,
Another country, golden to the shore,
Where a new passion and new hopes arise,
Where Southern blooms unfold forevermore.

And I, lone sitting by the twilight blaze,
Think of another wanderer in the snows,
And on more perilous mountain-tops I gaze
Than ever frowned above the vine and rose.

Yet courage, soul! nor hold thy strength in vain,
In hope o'ercome the steeps God set for thee,
For past the Alpine summits of great pain
Lieth thine Italy.



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