Mont Blanc
Worshipper in heaven's far courts! sublime
Gleams thy white, forehead, bound with purple air;
Thou art coeval with old, gray-haired Time;
Yet thy colossal features are as fair
As when the Omniscient set his signet there.
Wrapped in a royal robe, that human art
Could never weave, nor mortal monarch wear,
Thou sitt'st enthroned in majesty apart,
Folding eternal rest and silence in thy heart.
When the Almighty mind went forth and wrought
Upon the formless waters; when he hung
New worlds on their mysterious paths, and brought
Light out of brooding darkness; when the young,
Fair earth at his command from chaos sprung
To join the universal jubilee:
When all the hosts of heaven his triumphs sung —
God left his footsteps on the sounding sea,
And wrote his glorious name — proud monument! — on thee.
Tell us, earth-born companion of the stars,
Hast thou beheld when worlds were wrecked and riven?
Hast seen wild comets in their red simars.
O'er far fields of space at random driven?
Seest thou the angels at the gates of heaven?
Perchance they lend that glory to thy brow
Which burns and sparkles there this summer even!
Perchance their anthems float around thee now:
They worship God alway, and so, Mont Blanc, dost thou.
Solemn evangel of almighty power,
The pillars of the earth support thy throne;
Ages unknown, unnumbered, are thy dower,
Sunlight thy crown, the clouds of heaven thy zone.
Spires, columns, turrets, lofty and alone;
Snow-fields, where never bird nor beast abode;
Caverns unmeasured, fastnesses unknown,
Glaciers where human feet have never trod —
Ye are the visible throne, the dwelling-place of God.
What is the measure of our three-score years?
What the duration of our toil and care?
What are our aspirations, hopes and fears?
The joys we prize, the ills we needs must bear?
The earthly goals we win, the deeds we dare?
Our life is but a breath, a smile, a sigh;
We go, and time records not that we were:
But thou wilt lift thy giant brow on high
Till time's last hour is knelled, lost in eternity.
And we, beholding thee, do turn aside
From all the little idols we have wrought;
Self-love, ambition, wealth, fame, power and pride
Keep silence before thee; and we are taught
A nobler aim, a more enduring thought.
Our souls are touched by the celestial fire
That glows on holier altars; what we sought
With might, heart, mind, seems naught, and we aspire
To win some surer good, some guerdon holier, higher.
Thou art an altar, where the human soul
Pays God the tribute of its prayer and praise;
Feelings, emotions passing all control
Are born of thee; wondering, subdued, we gaze,
Till soul and sense are lost in still amaze,
And the o'erladen heart forgets to beat.
We feel the invisible, we seem to raise
The inner veil, to stand where two worlds meet,
Entranced, bewildered, rapt, adoring at thy feet.
Gleams thy white, forehead, bound with purple air;
Thou art coeval with old, gray-haired Time;
Yet thy colossal features are as fair
As when the Omniscient set his signet there.
Wrapped in a royal robe, that human art
Could never weave, nor mortal monarch wear,
Thou sitt'st enthroned in majesty apart,
Folding eternal rest and silence in thy heart.
When the Almighty mind went forth and wrought
Upon the formless waters; when he hung
New worlds on their mysterious paths, and brought
Light out of brooding darkness; when the young,
Fair earth at his command from chaos sprung
To join the universal jubilee:
When all the hosts of heaven his triumphs sung —
God left his footsteps on the sounding sea,
And wrote his glorious name — proud monument! — on thee.
Tell us, earth-born companion of the stars,
Hast thou beheld when worlds were wrecked and riven?
Hast seen wild comets in their red simars.
O'er far fields of space at random driven?
Seest thou the angels at the gates of heaven?
Perchance they lend that glory to thy brow
Which burns and sparkles there this summer even!
Perchance their anthems float around thee now:
They worship God alway, and so, Mont Blanc, dost thou.
Solemn evangel of almighty power,
The pillars of the earth support thy throne;
Ages unknown, unnumbered, are thy dower,
Sunlight thy crown, the clouds of heaven thy zone.
Spires, columns, turrets, lofty and alone;
Snow-fields, where never bird nor beast abode;
Caverns unmeasured, fastnesses unknown,
Glaciers where human feet have never trod —
Ye are the visible throne, the dwelling-place of God.
What is the measure of our three-score years?
What the duration of our toil and care?
What are our aspirations, hopes and fears?
The joys we prize, the ills we needs must bear?
The earthly goals we win, the deeds we dare?
Our life is but a breath, a smile, a sigh;
We go, and time records not that we were:
But thou wilt lift thy giant brow on high
Till time's last hour is knelled, lost in eternity.
And we, beholding thee, do turn aside
From all the little idols we have wrought;
Self-love, ambition, wealth, fame, power and pride
Keep silence before thee; and we are taught
A nobler aim, a more enduring thought.
Our souls are touched by the celestial fire
That glows on holier altars; what we sought
With might, heart, mind, seems naught, and we aspire
To win some surer good, some guerdon holier, higher.
Thou art an altar, where the human soul
Pays God the tribute of its prayer and praise;
Feelings, emotions passing all control
Are born of thee; wondering, subdued, we gaze,
Till soul and sense are lost in still amaze,
And the o'erladen heart forgets to beat.
We feel the invisible, we seem to raise
The inner veil, to stand where two worlds meet,
Entranced, bewildered, rapt, adoring at thy feet.
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