Poem: “Three Alpine Sonnets” by Henry Van Dyke

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American Literature – Children Books – American Poetry – Henry Van Dyke – Poems by Henry Van Dyke
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Three Alpine Sonnets

I

THE
GLACIER

At dawn in silence moves the mighty stream,  The silver-crested waves no murmur make;  But far away the avalanches wakeThe rumbling echoes, dull as in a dream;Their momentary thunders, dying, seem  To fall into the stillness, flake by flake,  And leave the hollow air with naught to breakThe frozen spell of solitude supreme.

At noon unnumbered rills begin to spring  Beneath the burning sun, and all the wallsOf all the ocean-blue crevasses ring  With liquid lyrics of their waterfalls;As if a poet’s heart had felt the glowOf sovereign love, and song began to flow.

Zermatt,
1872.

II

THE
SNOW-FIELD

White Death had laid his pall upon the plain,  And crowned the mountain-peaks like monarchs dead;  The vault of heaven was glaring overheadWith pitiless light that filled my eyes with pain;And while I vainly longed, and looked in vain  For sign or trace of life, my spirit said,  “Shall any living thing that dares to treadThis royal lair of Death escape again?”

But even then I saw before my feet  A line of pointed footprints in the snow:  Some roving chamois, but an hour ago,Had passed this way along his journey fleet,And left a message from a friend unknownTo cheer my pilgrim-heart, no more alone.

Zermatt,
1872.

III

MOVING
BELLS

I love the hour that comes, with dusky hair  And dewy feet, along the Alpine dells,  To lead the cattle forth. A thousand bellsGo chiming after her across the fairAnd flowery uplands, while the rosy flare  Of sunset on the snowy mountain dwells,  And valleys darken, and the drowsy spellsOf peace are woven through the purple air.

Dear is the magic of this hour: she seems  To walk before the dark by falling rills,And lend a sweeter song to hidden streams;  She opens all the doors of night, and fillsWith moving bells the music of my dreams,  That wander far among the sleeping hills.

Gstaad,
August, 1909.

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American Literature – Children Books – American Poetry – Henry Van Dyke – Poems by Henry Van Dyke

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