Classic Poem

As one who looks from rocky dales,
Still shadowed from the reddening morn,
Beholds above the gloaming slopes
The pale crests fiery in the dawn;

And lit on their uplifted brows
The glimmer of the far-off snow,
Like some pale star whose nearer light
The toiling worlds shall never know.

But when the broad sun's rising glow,
Flush with its fires the glittering ice,
And torrents from the foaming clefts
Leap flying o'er the precipice;

And broadening like a mighty sea,
Shall sweep on human field and home,
And shadowy depth and shadowy crest
Are shattered into clouds of foam—

Learn all who spurn ideal dreams
Of righted wrong and bettered woe;
The truth that seemed a star above,
May roar a flood of death below.