Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.

Savoy: Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc

By Lord Byron (1788–1824)

(From Manfred)

MONT BLANC is the monarch of mountains:

They crowned him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,

With a diadem of snow.

Around his waist are forests braced,

The avalanche in his hand;

But ere it fall, that thundering ball

Must pause for my command.

The glacier’s cold and restless mass

Moves onward day by day;

But I am he who bids it pass,

Or with its ice delay.

I am the spirit of the place,

Could make the mountain bow

And quiver to his caverned base,—

And what with me wouldst Thou?