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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


R. B. by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE

First Line: HIS SOUL WENT SINGING LIKE A MOUNTAINEER
Last Line: WAS NEVER STIRRED BY MAN'S VICISSITUDES.
Subject(s): BROWNING, ROBERT (1812-1889); POETRY & POETS;

HIS soul went singing like a mountaineer
Who climbs the hills, and carols as he climbs;
Above the snows he heard the faery chimes
Of God's faint bells, and felt no shade of fear.

He leaped in faith from year to glimmering year;
Nothing to him seemed poor or vile or vain,
Since all the fibres of his heart and brain
Were braced by hope's high Alpine atmosphere.

I have known no goodlier spirit! Where he walked,
Love masqueraded in rough skins and claws,
Feigning to be some monster of the woods;

Loud was the voice wherewith he rhymed and talked,
But warmer heart, or moved in kindlier cause,
Was never stirred by man's vicissitudes.



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