I SAW three mountains standing calm and clear Against the samite dawn. Their peaks of snow Dazzled with diamond-leaping light, as though The parapets of paradise were near. Between them stretched a valley, so austere Methought it was the shadow-shore of woe, The region of wrecked souls, the overflow On earth of Dante's sad-scened under-sphere: And pressing through that place unparalleled, Searching for what in such land could remain, A host of pallid people I beheld Who strove to climb the halcyon heights in vain. "What peaks? what vale?" I cried, by awe impelled. "The peaks of peace," they said, "the vale of pain." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEVEN TIMES TWO [ - ROMANCE] by JEAN INGELOW A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH by THOMAS PARNELL WHAT BEST I SEE; TO U.S.G. RETURN'D FROM HIS WORLD'S TOUR by WALT WHITMAN TASTE, AN EPISTLE TO A YOUNG CRITIC by JOHN ARMSTRONG SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 46 by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE UNKNOWN GOD by CHARLES GRANGER BLANDEN SOUTH STATE STREET, CHICAGO by MAXWELL BODENHEIM HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 15 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |