Once, morn by morn, when snowy mountains flamed With sudden shafts of light that shot a flood Into the vale like fiery arrows aim'd At night from mighty battlements, there stood Upon a cliff high-limn'd against Mount Hood, A matchless bull, fresh forth from sable wold, And standing so seem'd grander 'gainst the wood Than winged bull that stood with tips of gold Beside the brazen gates of Nineveh of old. A time he toss'd the dewy turf, and then Stretch'd forth his wrinkled neck, and loud He call'd above the far abodes of men Until his breath became a curling cloud And wreathed about his neck a misty shroud. He then as sudden as he came pass'd on With lifted head, majestic and most proud, And lone as night in deepest wood withdrawn He roamed in silent rage until another dawn. What drove the hermit from the valley herd, What cross of love, what cold neglect to kind, Or scorn of unpretending worth had stirr'd The stubborn blood and drove him forth to find A fellowship in mountain cloud and wind, I ofttime wonder'd much; and ofttime thought The beast betray'd a royal monarch's mind To lift above the low herd's common lot And make them hear him still when they had fain forgot. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WILLIE BREW'D A PECK O' MAUT by ROBERT BURNS A VISION UPON [THIS CONCEIT] OF THE FAERIE QUEENE (1) by WALTER RALEIGH THE THREAD OF LIFE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI BISHOP BRUNO by ROBERT SOUTHEY A TOUCH OF NATURE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |