Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MOUNTAIN, by ARTHUR PETERSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MOUNTAIN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The mountain heaves before me, green and gray
Last Line: Within this loftier sphere where ye do reign.
Subject(s): Mountain Climbing; Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


1

The mountain heaves before me, green and gray,
And up its rugged side I force my way;
Up through the groves of hemlock and of pine,
Up to the fountains sweet an crystalline
Whence leap the garrulous streams which round me twine;
Up to the floods of pure, untainted air,
Up to the stony summit, cold and bare.
Here, where the mountain lifts its craggy spire,
My eager-climbing feet can push no higher.
And once again I stand upon the peak,
And joy to hear the sky-born eagle shriek;
And, gazing earthward from my airy height,
Behold the prospect with dilated sight.
Majestic mountains, with their peaks of gray --
Sky-cutting pinnacles that, glancing down,
Capture the first long sunbeam of the day,
And gird it round their foreheads for a crown.
Broad forests, camped upon the mountain-side
Like armies; o'er whose tops the breezes glide,
And wave the upshooting hemlocks' tufts of green
Like knightly plumes before the battle seen.
Below the plain my bird's-eye vision finds,
Where, like a silver thread, the river winds.

2

O then, as I stand silent there among
Those giant powers that round about me throng,
A change comes o'er my being; mind and heart
Seem kin to them, and in their life take part.
I yield myself unto their welcoming grasp
E'en as the brooklet to the river's clasp,
Glad to forbear men's presence for a day
To mingle with such potentates as they.
My spirit shares this mountain-monarch's pride,
I stand, too, with the forest on his side,
Guarding, with pine-tree spears, his royal head
From the rude worldling's sacrilegious tread.
And foster-brothers seem the wind and rain
Descending, from their cloud-home, to the plain.

3

Ye mighty spirits of the earth and air!
How glorious to be one with you, to share
Your beauty vast and elemental strength!
So do I now, standing upon a stone
Of this huge pyramid which lifts its length
From earth to heaven. Here, from the world, alone,
I love to come, and all forget life's pain
Within this loftier sphere where ye do reign.





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