O THE glorious purple line Of the mountains lifted along the west! Bright, in the sun, their summits shine; Dark, in the shade, their valleys rest. Cossack and Tartar may hold the plains, And the rivers that creep to a tideless sea; Mine be the heights where the eagle reigns, And cataracts thunder, and winds blow free! Not for the steepe, with its desert sheen, From Austria's border to China's wall, Would I give the upland pasture's green, The beech-tree's shadow, the brooklet's fall. Vanish, O weary, mournful level! Welcome, O wind my brow that fans! In the splendor of earth again I revel, Greeting the purple Carpathians! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT THING A BIRD WOULD LOVE by ROBERT FROST CITIES OF THE PLAIN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE BELL by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES ALL THAT'S PAST by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE MAN IN THE MOON by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 15. ON DOMESTIC MANNERS (UNFINISHED) by MARK AKENSIDE MONICA'S LAST PRAYER by MATTHEW ARNOLD |