Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/99

Rh Quarry of spars in mountain pores;

Old cradle, hunting-ground and bier

Of wolf and otter, bear and deer;

Well-built abode of many a race;

Tower of observance searching space;

Factory of river and of rain;

Link in the Alps' globe-girding chain;

By million changes skilled to tell

What in the Eternal standeth well,

And what obedient Nature can;—

Is this colossal talisman

Kindly to plant and blood and kind,

But speechless to the master's mind?

I thought to find the patriots

In whom the stock of freedom roots;

To myself I oft recount

Tales of many a famous mount,—

Wales, Scotland, Uri, Hungary's dells:

Bards, Roys, Scanderbegs and Tells;

And think how Nature in these towers

Uplifted shall condense her powers,

And lifting man to the blue deep

Where stars their perfect courses keep,

Like wise preceptor, lure his eye

To sound the science of the sky,

And carry learning to its height

Of untried power and sane delight:

The Indian cheer, the frosty skies,

Rear purer wits, inventive eyes,—