The Grison gypsey here her tent hath placed,
Sole human tenant of the piny waste;
Her tawny skin, dark eyes, and glossy locks,
Bend o'er the smoke that curls beneath the rocksⁱⁱⁱ.

A giant moan along the forest swells
Protracted, and the twilight storm foretels,
And, ruining from the cliffs, their deafening load
Tumbles,—the wildering Thunder slips abroad;
On the high summits Darkness comes and goes,
Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and snows;
The torrent, traversed by the lustre broad,
Starts like a horse beside the flashing road;
In the roofed bridge, at that terrific hour,
She seeks a shelter from the battering show'r.
—Fierce comes the river down; the crashing wood
Gives way, and half it's pines torment the flood;
^ivFearful, beneath, the Water-spirits call,
And the bridge vibrates, tottering to its fall.

When rueful moans along the forest swell
Protracted, and the twilight storm foretel,
And, headlong from the cliffs, a deafening load
Tumbles,—and wildering thunder slips abroad;
When on the summits Darkness comes and goes,
Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and snows;
And the fierce torrent, from the lustre broad,
Starts, like a horse beside the flashing road—
She seeks a covert from the battering shower
In the roofed bridge; the bridge, in that dread hour,
Itself all quaking at the torrent's power.

—Heavy, and dull, and cloudy is the night;
No star supplies the comfort of it's light,
Glimmer the dim-lit Alps, dilated, round,
And one sole light shifts in the vale profound¹;
While², opposite, the waning moon hangs still,
And red, above her³ melancholy hill.
By the deep quiet gloom appalled, she sighs,⁴
Stoops her sick head, and shuts her weary eyes.
She hears, upon the mountain forest's brow,
The death-dog, howling loud and long, below;
—Breaking th' ascending roar of desert floods,
And insect buzz, that stuns the sultry woods⁵,
On viewless fingers⁶ counts the valley-clock,
Followed by drowsy crow of midnight cock.
—Bursts from the troubled larch's giant boughs
The pie, and, chattering, breaks the night's repose⁷.
The dry leaves stir as with the serpent's walk,
And, far beneath, Banditti voices talk;
Behind her hill⁸, the Moon, all crimson, rides,
And his red eyes the slinking Water hides.
—Vexed by the darkness, from the piny gulf
Ascending, nearer howls the famished wolf⁹,
While thro' the stillness scatters wild dismay
Her babe's small cry, that leads him to his prey.

Now, passing Urseren's open vale serene,
Her quiet streams, and hills of downy green,
Plunge with the Russ embrowned by Terror's breath,
Where danger roofs the narrow walks of death;

Plunge where the Reuss with fearless might has rent
His headlong way along a dark descent.

By floods, that, thundering from their dizzy height,
Swell more gigantic on the stedfast sight;
Black drizzling crags, that beaten by the din,
Vibrate, as if a voice complained within;
Bare steeps, where Desolation stalks afraid,
Unstedfast, by a blasted yew unstayed;
By cells whose image, trembling as he prays,
Awe-struck, the kneeling peasant scarce surveys;
Loose hanging rocks the Day's bless'd eye that hide,
And crosses reared to Death on every side,
Which with cold kiss Devotion planted near,
And bending water'd with the human tear;
That faded "silent" from her upward eye,
Unmoved with each rude form of Danger nigh,

On as we move a softer prospect opes,
Calm huts, and lawns between, and sylvan slopes.

While mists, suspended on the expiring gale,
Moveless o'er-hang the deep secluded vale,

Where mists,

Where mists suspended on the evening gale,
Spread roof-like o'er a deep secluded vale,

Given to clear view beneath a hoary veil
Of mists suspended on the evening gale.

The beams of evening, slipping soft between,
Light up of tranquil joy a sober scene.

Gently illuminate a sober scene;

On the low brown wood-huts delighted sleep
Along the brightened gloom reposing deep.

Here, on the brown wood-cottages they sleep,
There, over lawns and sloping woodlands creep.

There, over lawn or sloping pasture creep.

Winding its dark-green wood and emerald glade,
The still vale lengthens underneath the shade;
While in soft gloom the scattering bowers recede,
Green dewy lights adorn the freshened mead,

Winding its darksome wood and emerald glade,
The still vale lengthens underneath the shade
Of low-hung vapour: on the freshened mead
The green light sparkles;—the dim bowers recede.

... drizzling ...

... my soul awake,
Lo! Fear looks silent down on Uri's lake;
Where by the unpathwayed margin still and dread
Was never heard the plodding peasant's tread:

Tower like a wall the naked rocks, or reach
Far o'er the secret water dark with beech;

Tower-like rise up the naked rocks, or stretch

More high, to where creation seems to end,
Shade above shade the desert pines ascend.

... the aërial pines ...

Shade above shade, the aërial pines ascend,
Nor stop but where creation seems to end.

Yet, with his infants, man undaunted creeps
And hangs his small wood-hut upon the steeps,
Where'er, below, amid the savage scene
Peeps out a little speck of smiling green.
A garden-plot the mountain air perfumes,
Mid the dark pines a little orchard blooms;
A zig-zag path from the domestic skiff,
Threading the painful crag, surmounts the cliff.

... wood-cabin on the steeps.

... the desert air perfumes,

Thridding the painful crag, ...

Yet, wheresoe'er amid the savage scene
Peeps out a little spot of smiling green,
Man with his babes undaunted thither creeps,
And hangs his small wood-hut upon the steeps.
A garden-plot ...

—Before those hermit doors, that never know

—Before those lonesome doors, ...

The grassy seat beneath their casement shade
The pilgrim's wistful eye hath never stayed.

The shady porch ne'er offered a cool seat
To pilgrims overpowered by summer's heat.

—There, did the iron Genius not disdain
The gentle Power that haunts the myrtle plain,
There might the love-sick Maiden sit, and chide
Th' insuperable rocks and severing tide,
There watch at eve her Lover's sun-gilt sail
Approaching, and upbraid the tardy gale,
There list at midnight, till is heard no more,
Below, the echo of his parting oar,
There hang in fear, when growls the frozen stream^v,
To guide his dangerous tread, the taper's gleam.

There might the maiden chide, in love-sick mood,
The insuperable rocks and severing flood;

At midnight listen till his parting oar,
And its last echo, can be heard no more.

Yet tender thoughts dwell there, no solitude
Hath power youth's natural feelings to exclude;
There doth the maiden watch her lover's sail
Approaching, and upbraid the tardy gale.

Mid stormy vapours ever driving by,
Where ospreys, cormorants, and herons cry;

Where ospreys, cormorants, and herons cry,
'Mid stormy vapours ever driving by,

Where hardly given the hopeless waste to cheer,
Denied the bread of life the foodful ear,

Hovering o'er rugged wastes too bleak to rear
That common growth of earth, the foodful ear;

Dwindles the pear on autumn's latest spray,
And apple sickens pale in summer's ray;

Ev'n here Content has fixed her smiling reign

And often grasps her sword, and often eyes:
Her crest a bough of Winter's bleakest pine,
Strange "weeds" and alpine plants her helm entwine,
And wildly-pausing oft she hangs aghast,
While thrills the "Spartan fife" between the blast.

Flowers of the loftiest Alps her helm entwine;
And, wildly pausing, oft she hangs aghast,
As thrills ...

And oft at Fancy's call she stands aghast,
As if some old Swiss air had checked her haste,
Or thrill of Spartan fife were caught between the blast.

'Tis storm; and, hid in mist from hour to hour,

Glances the fire-clad eagle's wheeling form;

... glorious form;

Wide o'er the Alps a hundred streams unfold,

Those eastern cliffs ...

... strives to shun
The west ...

... tries to shun
The west, ...

Where in a mighty crucible expire
The mountains, glowing hot, like coals of fire.

While burn in his full eyes the glorious tears.

Exalt, and agitate ...

On Zutphen's plain; or where, with soften'd gaze,
The old grey stones the plaided chief surveys;
Can guess the high resolve, the cherished pain
Of him whom passion rivets to the plain,

And watch, from pike to pike, amid the sky
Small as a bird the chamois-chaser fly,

Thro' worlds where Life, and Sound, and Motion sleep;
Where Silence still her death-like reign extends,
Save when the startling cliff unfrequent rends:
In the deep snow the mighty ruin drowned,
Mocks the dull ear ...

While the near moon, that coasts the vast profound,
Wheels pale and silent her diminished round,

Flying more fleet than vision can pursue!

Then with Despair's whole weight his spirits sink,
No bread to feed him, and the snow his drink,
While, ere his eyes ...

Hence shall we turn where, heard with fear afar,

... from ...