FROM the tall mountain's brow A broken mass of rock Rolls down the wrinkles of the deep ravine As though it were a heavy tear of granite. If it seems to stop for a space It is but to roll on with a fiercer leap; A stag set free will not more swiftly reach its cave. It bounds forth mightily And plucks out at their very roots The pines and juniper trees. Also the wood-cutters toiling upon the slope Feel a disquietude upon their backs; And terror freezes their entrails, While this scourge approaches Which no man has yet seen. But I among the heather sunk in deepest peace Have a heart as calm as is a hooded falcon's, My skin is clear with blood that nothing can affright: For I know the mountain and the road of avalanches, And that the stone may not fall where I am. But I can point out far below The trees that it will fell And the man that it will crush. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ALMANACH DU PRINTEMPS VIVAROIS by HAYDEN CARRUTH TO -, WITH A ROSE by SIDNEY LANIER FRANCIS II, KING OF NAPLES; SONNET by AMY LOWELL THE MAN WITH THE WOODEN LEG by KATHERINE MANSFIELD DEAR OLD DICK by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |