Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79.
Goldau
By John Neal (1793–1876)A
From its eternal base, and borne,
In gold and crimson vapors drest,
To where a people are at rest!
And the forests vanished before its path,
And the rude cliffs bowed, and the waters fled,
And the living were buried, while over their head
They heard the full march of their foe as he sped,
And the valley of life was the tomb of the dead!
And over that valley no death-blast blew;
No storm passed by on his cloudy wing,
No twang was heard from the sky-archer’s string;
But the dark, dim hill in its strength came down,
While the shedding of day on its summit was thrown,—
A glory all light, like a wind-wreathed crown,—
While the tame bird flew to the vulture’s nest,
And the vulture forbore in that hour to molest.
The villages sank, and the monarch trees
Leaned back from the encountering breeze,
While this tremendous pageant moved!
The mountain forsook his perpetual throne,
Came down from his rock, and his path is shown,
In barrenness and ruin, where
The secret of his power lies bare,
His rocks in nakedness arise,
His desolation mocks the skies.