Classic Poem

IN THE FRANCONIA NOTCH .

O SILENT watcher on the mountain-head,
What years have passed, what generations sped,
Since eye first looked upon thy features dread!

Men gaze awe-struck upon thy countenance,
Or pass thee by with hasty, careless glance,
And speed again upon their folly's dance.

Unrecked by thee they come and go their ways;
Thou heedest not their chatter nor their praise,
But keepest down the vale thy solemn gaze.

Stern, grim, unyielding, unrelenting, thus
Looked old Prometheus forth from Caucasus,
So guerdoned for his service perilous.

Say, didst thou too the skies once strive to climb,
With purpose, too audaciously sublime,
To bring to man Heaven's gifts before their time?

Jove darts his bolts against thee, all in vain;
In vain his wrestling gales, his storming rain;
Thou wait'st undaunted, bearing all the pain.

The pitying clouds float up to cool thy cheek;
They woo thee gently, but thou dost not speak;
Silent, for thy deliverer dost thou seek?

Friend, helper, or deliverer find'st thou none;
Thy lip, thy brow, thy heart have turned to stone;
Dumb through the years, — in all the world alone!