 | Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy |  |
90
THE CHAMOIS OF LAUTERBRUNNEN
They penned it for a peepshow in the vale,
A creature of the clouds and of the air,
Bold as the wind the barren heights to dare,
With heart as restless as the flying gale.
How could its life not droop, its spirits fail?
He saw the sun on Jungfrau shining fair—
Those silver cliffs, the craggy precipice-stair
That led to pastures only he could scale.
A creature of the clouds and of the air,
Bold as the wind the barren heights to dare,
With heart as restless as the flying gale.
How could its life not droop, its spirits fail?
He saw the sun on Jungfrau shining fair—
Those silver cliffs, the craggy precipice-stair
That led to pastures only he could scale.
All day white Lütschĭne through his prison gate
Sang loud of liberty; he felt the smoke
Of Staubbach free as angels, and one day
He caught the far-off whistle of his mate
Sound from the Mönch's dark shoulders, and men say
‘A chamois died!’—'twas Freedom's heart that broke.
Sang loud of liberty; he felt the smoke
Of Staubbach free as angels, and one day
He caught the far-off whistle of his mate
Sound from the Mönch's dark shoulders, and men say
‘A chamois died!’—'twas Freedom's heart that broke.
| Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy | |