N Alpine valleys, they who watch for dawn Look never to the east; but fix their eyes On loftier mountain-peaks of snow, which rise To west or south. To west or south.Before the happy morn Has sent one ray of kindling red, to warn The sleeping clouds along the eastern skies That it is near,—flushing, in glad surprise, These royal hills, for royal watchmen born, Discover that God's great new day begins, And, shedding from their sacred brows a light Prophetic, wake the valley from its night. Such mystic light as this a great soul wins, Who overlooks earth's wall of griefs and sins, And steadfast, always, gazing on the white Great throne of God, can call aloud with deep. Pure voice of truth, to waken them who sleep.
Bad-Gastein, Austria, September 9, 1869.
LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS.
"In Alpine valleys, they who watch for dawn Look never to the east; but fix their eyes On loftier mountain-peaks of snow, which rise To west or south."