Page:Poems of nature, Thoreau, 1895.djvu/120

 MOUNTAINS

frontier strength ye stand your ground,

With grand content ye circle round,

Tumultuous silence for all sound,

Ye distant nursery of rills,

Monadnock, and the Peterborough hills;—

Firm argument that never stirs,

Outcircling the philosophers,—

Like some vast fleet

Sailing through rain and sleet,

Through winter's cold and summer's heat;

Still holding on upon your high emprise,

Until ye find a shore amid the skies;

Not skulking close to land,

With cargo contraband;