PRÆTERITA-III

CHAPTER I

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE

MONT BLANC REVISITED

(Written at Nyon in 1845)

O Mount beloved, mine eyes again

Behold the twilight’s sanguine stain

Along thy peaks expire.

O Mount beloved, thy frontier waste

I seek with a religious haste

And reverent desire.

They meet me, ’midst thy shadows cold,-

Such thoughts as holy men of old

Amid the desert found;-

Such gladness, as in Him they felt

Who with them through the darkness dwelt,

And compassed all around.

Ah, happy, if His will were so,

To give me manna here for snow,

And by the torrent side

To lead me as He leads His flocks

Of wild deer through the lonely rocks

In peace, unterrified;

Since, from the things that trustful rest,

The partridge on her purple nest,

The marmot in his den,

God wins a worship more resigned,

A purer praise than He can find

Upon the lips of men.

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]