Classic Poem

To you, who, in the broad commercial plain,
Sittest where calm Passaic seeks the main,
I bring these mountain airs,—and wake once more
The minstrel harp you kindly beard of yore.
Beside your fire the heavenward hill would rear.
And give the pleasures of the mountaineer,
Would wake the music of the marvellous pass,
And loose the avalanche's monster mass;
Recall, had I such mastery o'er the strings,
From St. Bernard the tempest's wildest wings!
Assured the dreariest scene would soon depart
Before your glowing hearth and genial heart!