Thirty-two years since, up against the sun, <br />Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight, <br />Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height, <br />And four lives paid for what the seven had won. <br /> <br />They were the first by whom the deed was done, <br />And when I look at thee, my mind takes flight <br />To that day's tragic feat of manly might, <br />As though, till then, of history thou hadst none. <br /> <br />Yet ages ere men topped thee, late and soon <br />Thou watch'dst each night the planets lift and lower; <br />Thou gleam'dst to Joshua's pausing sun and moon, <br />And brav'dst the tokening sky when Caesar's power <br />Approached its bloody end: yea, saw'st that Noon <br />When darkness filled the earth till the ninth hour.<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/zermatt-to-the-matterhorn/
