Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/304

 276 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

O'erlook the deep green seas of densely growing wood;

And ample shapes peculiar to these lofty ways

Continual l_y appear, until I reach

A spot wiiere Titan forces in some ancient time.

Along the mountain range produced a mighty rent;

Whose giant borders, opening from a central height.

Displa)' a general course that tends into the west,

And forms a slowly widening vale between, until

Two leagues are left behind, and then, for equal space

Pursues an inward course, that ends in lofty towers,

Who«e upright wails are scarce two hundred yards apart.

Within these massive barriers, a world appears.

Whei'e meadow ways of lively green are spread before

Long belts of undulating land, with many slopes

Made radiant by shrubs and thrifty highland flowers,

Whose colors and perfume have far more potency

Than those of any plant produced by human skill.

These pastures reach away to where the ground

Is occupied by ranks of hemlock, birch and fir.

Whose hardy life will thrive upon the scanty soil

So long as any earth remains ;ibove the rocks.

And only ends where walls of tempest-beaten stone

Loom tiirough the air until their frowning battlements

Are hung against the sky-like clouds of duskv gray.

While down the eastern crags, with many a dizzy leap.

Sharp turning course, and ever changing rate of speed,

A youthful streamlet sends its flood into the vale,

Thi'ougli which it flows along a beauty bordered way,

While tiny brooks are rambling down to either shore.

And with their contributions swelling out its tide;

So that at last, with current running deep and broad,

,It rushes through the Titan giite. and sweeps away

Toward those principalities, where unpoetic man

Withgreed}^ hands will grasp its store i3f liquid wealth. M

When equinoctial days of Spring and Autumn come,

And setting Phoebus disappears in central west,

Tlie same, as seen from points upon the eastern height,

To sink directly thri)ugh that nai'raw passage-way

Between the western towers, until his ball of flame ■

Goes down into the foaming waters of th8 stream, ■

And as the glassy flood transmits his flnal glow,

All scenes receive a suilden bath of mystic light,

Subdued and strangely calm, that gives them beauty new.

With (!olor. robes distinctly pore an I richly fine;

With form, expression, glorious an I complete!

And thn>, in melody of perfect light an 1 shade,

From Monarch Sol to this fair realm and back again,

Is sent the alway holy message of Good Night!

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