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...THE WRECK OF THE CIRCUS TRAIN by HAYDEN CARRUTH WISDOM COMETH WITH THE YEARS by COUNTEE CULLEN SONGS FOR TWO SEASONS: 1. AFTER GRAVE ILLNESS by CAROL FROST LITTLE SON by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK by AMY LOWELL RICHARD BOOTH TO HIS SON JUNIUS BRUTUS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |