Written after a visit to Rawley Springs, in the mountains of <br />Virginia. <br /> <br />On the mountains! Oh, how sweet! <br />The busy world beneath my feet! <br />Outspread before my raptur'd eyes <br />The wide unbounded prospect lies; <br />The panoramic vision glows <br />In beauty, grandeur and repose. <br />I gaze into the vaulted blue <br />And on the em'rald fields below; <br />The genial sunlight shimmers down <br />Upon the mountain's rugged crown, <br />The eye sweeps round the horizon <br />Until its utmost verge is won. <br />The hoary peaks, with forests crown'd, <br />Spread their vast solitudes around, <br />And intervening rocks and rills <br />The eye with very transport fills. <br />The bosom wells with joy serene <br />While viewing all the lovely scene, <br />The spirit soars on airy wings <br />Above all sublunary things. <br />I peer into the depths profound <br />Of the cerulean around, <br />And ether's far-off heights I scan, <br />As if, to feeble finite man, <br />The power of vision here were given <br />To view the battlements of heaven. <br />But, though I gaze and gaze intent, <br />Close scanning all the firmament, <br />No Mount of Vision unto me <br />Does this bold summit prove to be. <br />Though in elysian wrapt the while, <br />Where sublimated thoughts beguile, <br />Icarian pinions, all too frail, <br />Were sure my fancy's flight to fail. <br />Confined within this mortal clod, <br />Vain man would yet ascend to God, <br />Presumptuous, as of yore, to be <br />The heir of immortality. <br />But, from those fair, celestial heights <br />Of fervid fancy's loftiest flights, <br />My airy visions topple down <br />To where cool reason's realm is found, <br />And fancy folds her weary wings, <br />Content, the while, with earthly things.<br /><br />Henry Vanderford<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-mountains/
