Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/191

Rh For the white glory overawes me;
 * The crystal terror of the seer
 * Of Chebar’s vision blinds me here.

Rebuke me not, O sapphire heaven!
 * Thou stainless earth, lay not on me
 * Thy keen reproach of purity,

If, in this august presence-chamber,
 * I sigh for summer’s leaf-green gloom
 * And warm airs thick with odorous bloom!

Let the strange frost-work sink and crumble,
 * And let the loosened tree-boughs swing,
 * Till all their bells of silver ring.

Shine warmly down, thou sun of noontime,
 * On this chill pageant, melt and move
 * The winter’s frozen heart with love.

And, soft and low, thou wind south-blowing,
 * Breathe through a veil of tenderest haze
 * Thy prophecy of summer days.

Come with thy green relief of promise,
 * And to this dead, cold splendor bring
 * The living jewels of the spring!

river hemmed with leaning trees
 * Wound through its meadows green;

A low, blue line of mountains showed
 * The open pines between.

One sharp, tall peak above them all
 * Clear into sunlight sprang:

I saw the river of my dreams,
 * The mountains that I sang!

No clue of memory led me on,
 * But well the ways I knew;

A feeling of familiar things
 * With every footstep grew.

Not otherwise above its crag
 * Could lean the blasted pine;

Not otherwise the maple hold
 * Aloft its red ensign.

So up the long and shorn foot-hills
 * The mountain road should creep;

So, green and low, the meadow fold
 * Its red-haired kine asleep.

The river wound as it should wind;
 * Their place the mountains took;

The white torn fringes of their clouds
 * Wore no unwonted look.

Yet ne’er before that river’s rim
 * Was pressed by feet of mine,

Never before mine eyes had crossed
 * That broken mountain line.

A presence, strange at once and known,
 * Walked with me as my guide;

The skirts of some forgotten life
 * Trailed noiseless at my side.