| |
| FAR up on Katahdin thou towerest, | |
| Purple-blue with the distance and vast; | |
| Like a cloud o’er the lowlands thou lowerest, | |
| That hangs poised on a lull in the blast, | |
| To its fall leaning awful. | 5 |
| |
| In the storm, like a prophet o’ermaddened, | |
| Thou singest and tossest thy branches; | |
| Thy heart with the terror is gladdened, | |
| Thou forebodest the dread avalanches, | |
| When whole mountains swoop valeward. | 10 |
| |
| In the calm thou o’erstretchest the valleys | |
| With thine arms, as if blessings imploring, | |
| Like an old king led forth from his palace, | |
| When his people to battle are pouring | |
| From the city beneath him. | 15 |
| |
| To the slumberer asleep ’neath thy glooming | |
| Thou dost sing of wild billows in motion, | |
| Till he longs to be swung mid their booming | |
| In the tents of the Arabs of ocean, | |
| Whose finned isles are their cattle. | 20 |
| |
| For the gale snatches thee for his lyre, | |
| With mad hand crashing melody frantic, | |
| While he pours forth his mighty desire | |
| To leap down on the eager Atlantic, | |
| Whose arms stretch to his playmate. | 25 |
| |
| The wild storm makes his lair in thy branches, | |
| Preying thence on the continent under; | |
| Like a lion, crouched close on his haunches, | |
| There awaiteth his leap the fierce thunder, | |
| Growling low with impatience. | 30 |
| |
| Spite of winter, thou keep’st thy green glory, | |
| Lusty father of Titans past number! | |
| The snow-flakes alone make thee hoary, | |
| Nestling close to thy branches in slumber, | |
| And thee mantling with silence. | 35 |
| |
| Thou alone know’st the splendor of winter, | |
| Mid thy snow-silvered, hushed precipices, | |
| Hearing crags of green ice groan and splinter, | |
| And then plunge down the muffled abysses | |
| In the quiet of midnight. | 40 |
| |
| Thou alone know’st the glory of summer, | |
| Gazing down on thy broad seas of forest, | |
| On thy subjects that send a proud murmur | |
| Up to thee, to their sachem, who towerest | |
| From thy bleak throne to heaven. | 45 |
| |
