SNOW-GARMENTED, immense, And holding audience With subject clouds, he seems to poise in air,— And at his mighty base An hundred towns find place And two great cities rival-thewed and fair. Above him, without bound, The heavens arch profound, As loverlike he greets the risen sun. His diamond-scattered snows Reflect the golden glows And purple glooms of eve as day is done. There mile on mile he shines Above his ragged pines, An empire tributary to his view: Ten thousand wealthy farms, The blue Sound's gleaming arms, The distant ocean's wavering edge of blue. There all the star-hushed night, Like a great ghost in white, He communes with the Spirit of the Dark, While murmuring below Life's tides of being flow And cities gleam like shards which flash a spark. How many thousand years Of human hopes and fears He's known the sun and stars, no voice may tell— But long ere humankind Groped slowly into mind He hushed primeval forests with his spell. How many thousand years Of human hopes and fears He yet shall tower! till his slaughtered trees Have risen far and wide As homes where folk may bide In many smoky cities at his knees. And then when man is dust Still with His shoulders thrust The black cloud-tumult of the storm in twain! When Life shall cease to be He still will greet the sea Far-flashing monarch of a dead domain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG:SO WHY DOES THIS DEAD CARNATION by HAYDEN CARRUTH A POEM FROM THE EDGE OF AMERICA by JAMES GALVIN TO EMILIE BIGELOW HAPGOOD - PHILANTHROPIST by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON APPLES OF HESPERIDES by AMY LOWELL WINTER SONG by KATHERINE MANSFIELD ANCHORED TO THE INFINITE by EDWIN MARKHAM FOR THE NEW YEAR by EDWIN MARKHAM |