FROM such romantic dreams, my soul, awake! To sterner pleasure, where, by Uri's lake, In Nature's pristine majesty outspread, Winds neither road nor path for foot to tread: The rocks rise naked as a wall, or stretch Far o'er the water, hung with groves of beech; Aerial pines from loftier steeps ascend, Nor stop but where creation seems to end. Yet here and there, if mid the savage scene Appears a scanty plot of smiling green, Up from the lake a zigzag path will creep, To reach a small wood-hut hung boldly on the steep. Before those thresholds (never can they know The face of traveller passing to and fro) No peasant leans upon his pole, to tell For whom at morning tolled the funeral bell; Their watch-dog ne'er his angry bark foregoes, Touched by the beggar's moan of human woes; The shady porch ne'er offered a cool seat To pilgrims overcome by summer's heat. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DESIRE OF NATIONS by EDWIN MARKHAM VISION OF BELSHAZZAR by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE YOUNG HOUSEWIFE by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS AT TWO-AND-TWENTY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH RHENISH AUTUMN; TO TOUSSAINT LUCA by GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE EXPECTATION by GLADYS BRIERLY ASHOUR THE WITHERED ROSE by PHILIP AYRES TO MISS F. B. ON ASKING FOR MRS. BARBAULD'S LOVE AND TIME by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |