Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79. | | | | Savoy: Mont Blanc | | Mont Blanc | | Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
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MONT BLANC is the monarch of mountains: | |
| They crowned him long ago | |
| On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, | |
| With a diadem of snow. | |
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| Around his waist are forests braced, | 5 |
| The avalanche in his hand; | |
| But ere it fall, that thundering ball | |
| Must pause for my command. | |
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| The glacier’s cold and restless mass | |
| Moves onward day by day; | 10 |
| But I am he who bids it pass, | |
| Or with its ice delay. | |
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| I am the spirit of the place, | |
| Could make the mountain bow | |
| And quiver to his caverned base,— | 15 |
| And what with me wouldst Thou? | | | | |
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