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* * * * * EMERGING from the caverned glen, | |
| From steep to steep I slowly climb, | |
| And, far above the haunts of men, | |
| I tread in air sublime: | |
| Beneath my path the swallows sweep; | 5 |
| Yet higher crags impend, | |
| And wild-flowers from the fissures peep, | |
| And rills descend. | |
| |
| Now on the ridges bare and bleak, | |
| Cool round my temples sighs the gale: | 10 |
| Ye winds! that wander o’er the Peak, | |
| Ye mountain spirits, hail! | |
| Angels of health! to man below | |
| Ye bring celestial airs; | |
| Bear back to Him from whom ye blow | 15 |
| Our praise and prayers. | |
| |
| Here, like the eagle from his nest, | |
| I take my proud and dizzy stand; | |
| Here, from the cliff’s sublimest crest, | |
| Look down upon the land: | 20 |
| O for the eagle’s eye to gaze | |
| Undazzled through this light! | |
| O for the eagle’s wings to raise | |
| O’er all my flight! | |
| |
| The sun in glory walks the sky, | 25 |
| White fleecy clouds are floating round, | |
| Whose shapes along the landscape fly,— | |
| Here, checkering o’er the ground, | |
| There, down the glens the shadows sweep, | |
| With changing lights between; | 30 |
| Yonder they climb the upland steep, | |
| Shifting the scene. | |
| |
| Above, beneath, immensely spread, | |
| Valleys and hoary rocks I view, | |
| Heights over heights exalt their head | 35 |
| Of many a sombre hue; | |
| No waving woods their flanks adorn, | |
| No hedge-rows, gay with trees, | |
| Encircled fields, where floods of corn | |
| Roll to the breeze. | 40 |
| |
| My soul this vast horizon fills, | |
| Within whose undulated line | |
| Thick stand the multitude of hills, | |
| And clear the waters shine; | |
| Gray mossy walls the slopes ascend; | 45 |
| While roads, that tire the eye, | |
| Upward their winding course extend, | |
| And touch the sky. | |
| |
| With rude diversity of form, | |
| The insulated mountains tower; | 50 |
| Oft o’er these cliffs the transient storm | |
| And partial darkness lower, | |
| While yonder summits far away | |
| Shine sweetly through the gloom, | |
| Like glimpses of eternal day. | 55 |
| Beyond the tomb. * * * * * | |
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