[Page [293]]

HYMN,

WRITTEN AMONG THE ALPS.

1 CREATION'S GOD! with thought elate,
2 Thy hand divine I see
3 Impressed on scenes, where all is great,
4 Where all is full of thee!
5 Where stern the Alpine mountains raise
6 Their heads of massive snow;
7 When on the rolling storm I gaze,
8 That hangs — how far below!
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9 Where on some bold, stupendous height,
10 The Eagle sits alone;
11 Or soaring wings his sullen flight
12 To haunts still more his own:
13 Where the sharp rock the Chamois treads,
14 Or, slippery summit scales;
15 Or where the whitening Snow-bird spreads
16 Her plumes to icy gales:
17 Where the rude cliff's steep column glows
18 With morning's tint of blue;
19 Or evening on the glacier throws
20 The rose's blushing hue:
21 Or where by twilight's softer light,
22 The mountain's shadow bends;
23 And sudden casts a partial night,
24 As black its form descends:
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25 Where the full ray of noon alone
26 Down the deep valley falls:
27 Or where the sunbeam never shone
28 Between its rifted walls:
29 Where cloudless regions calm the soul,
30 Bid mortal cares be still,
31 Can passion's wayward wish controul,
32 And rectify the will:
33 Where midst some vast expanse the mind,
34 Which swelling virtue fires,
35 Forgets that earth it leaves behind,
36 And to it's heaven aspires:
37 Where far along the desart air
38 Is heard no creature's call:
39 And undisturbing mortal ear
40 The avalanches fall:
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41 Where rushing from their snowy source,
42 The daring torrents urge
43 Their loud-toned waters headlong course,
44 And lift their feathered surge:
45 Where swift the lines of light and shade
46 Flit o'er the lucid lake:
47 Or the shrill winds its breast invade,
48 And its green billows wake:
49 Where on the slope, with speckled dye
50 The pigmy herds I scan;
51 Or soothed, the scattered Chalets spy,
52 The last abode of man:
53 Or where the flocks refuse to pass,
54 And the lone peasant mows,
55 Fixed on his knees, the pendent grass,
56 Which down the steep he throws:
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57 Where high the dangerous pathway leads
58 Above the gulph profound,
59 From whence the shrinking eye recedes,
60 Nor finds repose around:
61 Where red the mountain-ash reclines
62 Along the clifted rock;
63 Where firm the dark unbending pines
64 The howling tempests mock:
65 Where, level with the ice-ribb'd bound
66 The yellow harvests glow;
67 Or vales with purple vines are crown'd
68 Beneath impending snow:
69 Where the rich min'rals catch the ray,
70 With varying lustre bright,
71 And glittering fragments strew the way
72 With sparks of liquid light:
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73 Or where the moss forbears to creep
74 Where loftier summits rear
75 Their untrod snow, and frozen sleep
76 Locks all the uncolour'd year:
77 In every scene, where every hour
78 Sheds some terrific grace,
79 In Nature's vast o'erwhelming power,
80 THEE, THEE, my GOD, I trace!

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Title (in Source Edition): HYMN, WRITTEN AMONG THE ALPS.
Author: Helen Maria Williams
Themes:
Genres: hymn

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Williams, Helen Maria, 1759-1827. Poems on various subjects: with introductory remarks on the present state of science and literature in France. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1823, pp. [293]-298.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [8º W 229 BS].)

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Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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