Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AT HOCHFINSTERMUNZ, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD Poet's Biography First Line: Once more between its walls of pines Last Line: And, dying, trust thee for the rest. Subject(s): Love; Mythology - Classical; Nature; Pan (mythology); Soul; Switzerland; Swiss | ||||||||
Once more between its walls of pines I see the long ravine expand To where the ice-world's crystal lines Define the realm of Switzerland. Once more, a thousand feet below, I watch the river's silver sheen, As, foaming in its fettered flow, It rushes from the Engadine. Forever young, forever old, This gorge, where stream with forest blends, These glittering peaks, these glaciers cold, -- Are all to me familiar friends. I know, alas, their towering forms Of unresponsive rocks and snow Are heartless as their wintry storms, And heed not if I come or go; Yet none the less I love to trace Their stainless crests along the sky, And, as I greet each well-known face, Each seems in turn to make reply. So potent is the subtle spell That clothes such masses with a mind; So strong the instincts which impel Their lover answering love to find! What if in truth there really be A soul within them to adore; Some half-revealed Divinity, Whose presence haunts us evermore? Some Power, to read our hearts, and know How this wild beauty moves our tears; Some God that, as our spirits grow, Shall be discerned in after years? Instinctively did earlier man See fauns and dryads in the trees, And find in universal Pan The soul of Nature's mysteries. All is divine, -- the bird that sings, The flowers that bloom, the waves that roll; One Spirit quickens men and things, And stirs alike the sun and soul. Great Nature's God! however styled, I love thee, and upon thy breast Would gladly lie, -- a grateful child, And, dying, trust thee for the rest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN ALPINE PICTURE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE PRISONER OF CHILLON by GEORGE GORDON BYRON SWITZERLAND by JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES THE COUNTRY OF A THOUSAND YEARS OF PEACE by JAMES INGRAM MERRILL SWITZERLAND AND ITALY by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES THOUGHT OF A BRITON ON THE SUBJUGATION OF SWITZERLAND by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE SWISS EMIGRANT by LUCY AIKEN MONCH AND JUNGFRAU by ANTON ALEXANDER VON AUERSPERG LINES WRITTEN IN SWITZERLAND by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES A MAY MONODY by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD |
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