Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | IV. Inland Waters: Highlands | | “Mont Blanc yet gleams on high” | | Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
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MONT BLANC yet gleams on high:—the power is there, | |
| The still and solemn power of many sights, | |
| And many sounds, and much of life and death. | |
| In the calm darkness of the moonless nights, | |
| In the lone glare of day, the snows descend | 5 |
| Upon that Mountain; none beholds them there, | |
| Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun, | |
| Or the star-beams dart thro’ them:—Winds contend | |
| Silently there, and heap the snow with breath | |
| Rapid and strong, but silently! Its home | 10 |
| The voiceless lightning in these solitudes | |
| Keeps innocently, and like vapor broods | |
| Over the snow. The secret strength of things | |
| Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome | |
| Of heaven is as a law, inhabits thee! | 15 |
| And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, | |
| If to the human mind’s imaginings | |
| Silence and solitude were vacancy? | | | | |
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