“Splugen” [poem]
A little cultivated space
Amid the rocky wilderness 2
It was not so conspicuous seen
Where every mountain top was green
But that a little hamlet lay
With its enclosures, mid the array
Of the dark pines, most peacefully
And a few cattle stray
Browsing the grass the rocks among
Ringing their bells, and here and there
Poised on rock pinnacles i the air
Looked out from his round glassy eye,
The mountain goat suspiciously
And drop by drop a little spring
Down the smooth crag came glistering, 3
With a sweet tinkling sound, and fell
Into a massed receptacled
The long trunk of an aged fir,
You scarce could see the water there
So clear it ran, and sparkled round
Then gurgled oer the grassy ground
Marking its course by the fresh green
Of the grass blades it danced between
I drank, and rested, and would fain
have stopped to gaze and gaze again
And rest awhile the wearied eye,
Wearied with wild sublimity
No, on, the peaceful bourne is past
The rocks around are closing fast,
Higher and higher towards the heaven
Betwixt the cliffs our road is riven,
Or twining round the hill side bare
With many a bend, 4 where the thin
Gan to blow cold, and damp and keen,
But sharp and pressureless, the green,
Though fresh upon the mountain side
Was now mere thinly scattered
Now you might see, in sheltered nook
The snow arch oer the icy brook
With strange white delicate bridgy curve
That the green light shot through above
And round, beneath, beside there grew,
The Alpine roses heathery hue 5
That blushed along the mountain head,
Was never flow'r so regal red
If you climbed the scathed old rocks along,
It Looked out the cold white snow among
And where no other flower would blow
There you might see the red rose grow
Amid the rocky wilderness 2
It was not so conspicuous seen
Where every mountain top was green
But that a little hamlet lay
System generated line number
5With its enclosures, mid the array
Of the dark pines, most peacefully
And a few cattle stray
ed
ing
alongBrowsing the grass the rocks among
Ringing their bells, and here and there
System generated line number
10Poised on rock pinnacles i the air
Looked out from his round glassy eye,
The mountain goat suspiciously
And drop by drop a little spring
Ruskin's line number
660Down the smooth crag came glistering, 3
System generated line number
15With a sweet tinkling sound, and fell
Into a massed receptacled
The long trunk of an aged fir,
You scarce could see the water there
Ruskin's line number
665So clear it ran, and sparkled round
System generated line number
20Then gurgled oer the grassy ground
Marking its course by the fresh green
Of the grass blades it danced between
I drank, and rested, and would fain
Ruskin's line number
670have stopped to gaze and gaze again
System generated line number
25And rest awhile the wearied eye,
Wearied with wild sublimity
No, on, the peaceful bourne is past
The rocks around are closing fast,
Ruskin's line number
675Higher and higher towards the heaven
Ruskin's line number
6
System generated line number
30Betwixt the cliffs our road is riven,
Or twining round the hill side bare
With many a bend, 4 where the thin
high
airGan to blow cold, and damp and keen,
Ruskin's line number
680But sharp and pressureless, the green,
System generated line number
35Though fresh upon the mountain side
Was now mere thinly scattered
Now you might see, in sheltered nook
The snow arch oer the icy brook
Ruskin's line number
68559
With strange white delicate bridgy curve
System generated line number
40That the green light shot through above
And round, beneath, beside there grew,
The Alpine roses heathery hue 5
That blushed along the mountain head,
Ruskin's line number
690Was never flow'r so regal red
System generated line number
45If you climbed the scathed old rocks along,
It Looked out the cold white snow among
And where no other flower would blow
There you might see the red rose grow
Ruskin's line number
695