The Voice and the Peak

by Alfred Tennyson

                        I.
THE VOICE and the Peak
    Far over summit and lawn,
The lone glow and long roar
    Green-rushing from the rosy thrones of dawn!

                        II.
All night have I heard the voice
    Rave over the rocky bar,
But thou wert silent in heaven,
    Above thee glided the star.

                        III.
Hast thou no voice, O Peak,
    That standest high above all?
‘I am the voice of the Peak,
    I roar and rave, for I fall.

                        IV.
‘A thousand voices go
    To North, South, East, and West;
They leave the heights and are troubled,
    And moan and sink to their rest.

                        V.
‘The fields are fair beside them,
    The chestnut towers in his bloom;
But they—they feel the desire of the deep—
    Fall, and follow their doom.

                        VI.
‘The deep has power on the height,
    And the height has power on the deep;
They are raised for ever and ever,
    And sink again into sleep.’

                        VII.
Not raised for ever and ever,
    But when their cycle is o’er,
The valley, the voice, the peak, the star
    Pass, and are found no more.

                        VIII.
The Peak is high and flush’d
    At his highest with sunrise fire;
The Peak is high, and the stars are high,
    And the thought of a man is higher.

                        IX.
A deep below the deep,
    And a height beyond the height!
Our hearing is not hearing,
    And our seeing is not sight.

                        X.
The voice and the Peak
    Far into heaven withdrawn,
The lone glow and long roar
    Green-rushing from the rosy thrones of dawn!