The Glacier

Henry Van Dyke

At dawn in silence moves the mighty stream,
The silver-crested waves no murmur make;   
But far away the avalanches wake
The rumbling echoes, dull as in a dream;
Their momentary thunders, dying, seem   
To fall into the stillness, flake by flake,   
And leave the hollow air with naught to break
The frozen spell of solitude supreme.

At noon unnumbered rills begin to spring   
Beneath the burning sun, and all the walls
Of all the ocean-blue crevasses ring   
With liquid lyrics of their waterfalls;
As if a poet's heart had felt the glow
Of sovereign love, and song began to flow.

Zermatt, 1872.

Poetry Atlas has many poems about Switzerland.