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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FALL RIVER PASS, by ALICE C. NEWBERRY
First Line: The touch of tender majesty is here
Last Line: The tender touch of majesty is here.
Subject(s): Rivers
First Line: The touch of tender majesty is here
Last Line: The tender touch of majesty is here.
Subject(s): Rivers
The touch of tender majesty is here,
As marshalled, row on row, these Titans stand;
Above, cloud veils float tenuous or drop sheer
To scarf a chasm or outline a strand.
No Turner, drawing Tamar, ever dreamed
Such depth of distance, such divine display
Of amethyst and azure inter-reamed
With purples shading to a softened gray.
As if the regal artist's penciled rays,
Swept richest sapphire from a foamless sea,
Mixed strong with sunshine from all golden days,
And violet shadows of eternity.
From west to east beneath the wondrous scope,
Still sentinels of an age grown gray
Guard tiny blossoms spattered o'er each slope
Like drops of color from a fading day.
Beneath the greater mountain's frowning crest,
An ancient cirque one sees, well filled with snows,
An amphitheater where glaciers pressed,
But now, Fall River gathers strength and grows
To freshen unseen valleys far below,
To silver mirrors on a dusty plain,
To fashion fields where painted flowers blow,
Or man must toil to reap wind-burnished grain.
Scarred veterans battling with an Alpine gale,
Rough, rugged, seamed, and broken warriors sere,
Still can your earnest teaching never fail --
The tender touch of majesty is here.
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