Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON RECROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS IN WINTER,AFTER MANY YEARS, by JOHN CHARLES FREMONT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON RECROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS IN WINTER,AFTER MANY YEARS, by                    
First Line: Long years ago I wandered here
Last Line: The brief day's close.
Variant Title(s): The Wanderer
Subject(s): Rocky Mountain Range


LONG years ago I wandered here,
In the midsummer of the year --
Life's summer too.
A score of horsemen here we rode,
The mountain world its glories showed,
All fair to view.

These scenes, in glowing colors drest,
Mirrored the life within my breast, --
Its world of hope.
The whispering woods and fragrant breeze
That stirred the grass in verdant seas
On billowy slope,

And glistening crag in sunlit sky,
'Mid snowy clouds piled mountains high,
Were joys to me;
My path was o'er the prairie wide,
Or here on grander mountain side,
To choose, all free.

The rose that waved in morning air,
That spread its dewy fragrance there
In careless bloom,
Gave to my heart its ruddiest hue,
O'er my glad life its color threw,
And sweet perfume.

Now changed the scene and changed the eyes
That here once looked on glowing skies
Where summer smiled;
These riven trees and wind-swept plain
Now show the winter's dread domain --
Its fury wild.

The rocks rise black from storm-packed snow,
All checked the river's pleasant flow,
Vanished the bloom;
These dreary wastes of frozen plain
Reflect my bosom's life again,
Now lonesome gloom.

The buoyant hopes and busy life
Have ended all in hateful strife
And thwarted aim.
The world's rude contact kills the rose,
No more its radiant color shows
False roads to fame.

Backward amid the twilight glow
Some lingering spots yet brightly show
On hard roads won
Where still some grand peaks mark the way,
Touched by the light of parting day
And memory's sun.

But here thick clouds the mountains hide,
The dim horizon, bleak and wide,
No pathway shows.
And rising gusts and darkening sky
Tell of "the night that cometh" nigh
The brief day's close.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net