* * * *

The highest of a glacier covered range,
Its proud and lofty crest at length hath bowed
Before the bold attack of alpinists
Undaunted by the steeps or storm or cloud;
and all the dangers than in grim array
The spirit of the mountain brought to play.



[*]The Great Divide

What strange emotions fill my breast!
What flitting shadows of unrest
Sweep o'er me as I stand beside
The Rocky Mountains' "Great Divide."

That rustic arch, with letters bold
Against the summit snowfields cold,
Has power to wing my fancy far
To this split streamlet's furthest bar.

The icy flood is cleft in twain,
Its waters never meet again;
Far east and to the furthest west
Those wavelets hurry without rest.

The mind can hardly grasp such vast
Extent of territory passed