Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79.

Switzerland: Alps, The

The Alps at Daybreak

By Samuel Rogers (1763–1855)

THE SUNBEAMS streak the azure skies,

And line with light the mountain’s brow:

With hounds and horns the hunters rise,

And chase the roebuck through the snow.

From rock to rock, with giant bound,

High on their iron poles they pass;

Mute, lest the air, convulsed by sound,

Rend from above a frozen mass.

The goats wind slow their wonted way,

Up craggy steeps and ridges rude;

Marked by the wild wolf for his prey,

From desert cave or hanging wood.

And while the torrent thunders loud,

And as the echoing cliffs reply,

The huts peep o’er the morning-cloud,

Perched, like an eagle’s nest, on high.