Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO MERAN'S NORTHERN MOUNTAINS, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD Poet's Biography First Line: Breathe on my soul your everlasting calm Last Line: Retain, as well, the sweetness of the rose. Subject(s): Fate; Life; Mountains; Soul; Destiny; Hills; Downs (great Britain) | ||||||||
Breathe on my soul your everlasting calm, Majestic mountains, passionless and cold! Give to my spirit, drooping 'neath the palm, The rugged strength your changeless summits hold! So thin the azure veil that floats between My tropic flowers and your arctic snows, That one swift glance reveals to me the sheen Of your white bastions and my blossoming rose. Yet, though so near, my feet have never pressed Your silvered ramparts, etched along the sky: Untrodden crystal crowns each spotless crest; On virgin snows the sunset colors die. So near, yet unattainable! Ye seem Like awful deities, at whose command Man's evanescent life, -- a fretful stream, One instant murmurs and is lost in sand. Splendid in sunshine, steadfast under storms, Facing the fiercest tempests with disdain, The blackest clouds that shroud your giant forms, Leave on your glittering panoply no stain. The setting sun will turn your gray to gold, The dawn will find your icy foreheads bare, And all your glacial armor, as of old, Will shine resplendent in the upper air. So from my life may all dark clouds depart! So may I come unscathed from Fate's worst blows! Yet with your strength, O Mountains, let my heart Retain, as well, the sweetness of the rose. | 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 A MAY MONODY by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD |
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