Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AT THE CONVENT NEAR SAINT GALL, by JAMES COCHRANE First Line: How sweet that valley, clothed in freshest green Last Line: Lamenting over creatures so forlorn. Variant Title(s): Written At The Convent Near Saint Gall Subject(s): Alps; Mountains; Saint Gall, Switzerland; Hills; Downs (great Britain) | ||||||||
I. HOW sweet that valley, clothed in freshest green, With its neat city! whose white shining walls And village-like circumference scarce recalls The form of any city we have seen, But looks like some small picture, so serene And still it lies! But hark! the convent-bell! What strange emotions in the bosom swell! And fair before, now doubly fair the scene. Such magic's in a sound. The mind is stored With images, requiring but a stroke, Or gentlest touch, to vibrate at each chord, And pleasurable feelings to evoke: It is a prism, whose hues are undisclosed Till acted on, and to its sun exposed. II. OUR sweetest musings are delusions oft, As baseless as night dreams, or as the bow, Spanning the heavens, which from afar a glow Of beauty seems, radiant, at once, and soft, Meet path for spirits when they pass aloft, But aerial and unreal. To my young mind, A convent brought up images refined And beautiful, till, standing 'neath their loft, I heard the sisters, gazing on the wall, Repeat and re-repeat their weary drawl, Which the damp vaults cast back as if in scorn; And learned that prayers ceased not, nor night nor day, Nor had for ages; when I turned away, Lamenting over creatures so forlorn. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CALIFORNIA SORROW: MOUNTAIN VIEW by MARY KINZIE CONTRA MORTEM: THE MOUNTAIN FASTNESS by HAYDEN CARRUTH GREEN MOUNTAIN IDYL by HAYDEN CARRUTH IF IT WERE NOT FOR YOU by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE LAKE AT ZURICH by JAMES COCHRANE |
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