Scenes and Hymns of Life, with Other Religious Poems/Mountain Sanctuaries

by Felicia Hemans

For other versions of this work, see Sonnets, Devotional and Memorial. VII. Mountain Sanctuaries.

VII.

MOUNTAIN SANCTUARIES.

"He went up to a mountain apart to pray."

A child midst ancient mountains I have stood,
    Where the wild falcons make their lordly nest
On high. The spirit of the solitude
    Fell solemnly upon my infant breast,
Though then I prayed not; but deep thoughts have pressed
    Into my being since it breathed that air,
Nor could I now one moment live the guest
    Of such dread scenes, without the springs of prayer
O'erflowing all my soul. No minsters rise
    Like them in pure communion with the skies,
Vast, silent, open unto night and day;
    So might the o'erburdened Son of man have felt,
    When, turning where inviolate stillness dwelt,
He sought high mountains, there apart to pray.