FROM such romantic dreams, my soul, awake! To sterner pleasure, where, by Uri's lake, In Nature's pristine majesty outspread, Winds neither road nor path for foot to tread: The rocks rise naked as a wall, or stretch Far o'er the water, hung with groves of beech; Aerial pines from loftier steeps ascend, Nor stop but where creation seems to end. Yet here and there, if mid the savage scene Appears a scanty plot of smiling green, Up from the lake a zigzag path will creep, To reach a small wood-hut hung boldly on the steep. Before those thresholds (never can they know The face of traveller passing to and fro) No peasant leans upon his pole, to tell For whom at morning tolled the funeral bell; Their watch-dog ne'er his angry bark foregoes, Touched by the beggar's moan of human woes; The shady porch ne'er offered a cool seat To pilgrims overcome by summer's heat. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ISOLATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DOMESDAY BOOK: JANE FISHER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CUDDLE DOON by ALEXANDER ANDERSON THE CAPTAIN; AFTER READING HENLEY'S INVICTUS by DOROTHEA DAY BEFORE PARTING by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE EARLY DEATH AND FAME by MATTHEW ARNOLD ALL THIS by REBA MAXWELL AVERY |