Poems (Jackson)/Light on the Mountain-tops

by Helen Hunt Jackson

LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS.

N Alpine valleys, they who watch for dawn
Look never to the east; but fix their eyes
On loftier mountain-peaks of snow, which rise
To west or south.
To west or south.Before the happy morn
Has sent one ray of kindling red, to warn
The sleeping clouds along the eastern skies
That it is near,—flushing, in glad surprise,
These royal hills, for royal watchmen born,
Discover that God's great new day begins,
And, shedding from their sacred brows a light
Prophetic, wake the valley from its night.
Such mystic light as this a great soul wins,
Who overlooks earth's wall of griefs and sins,
And steadfast, always, gazing on the white
Great throne of God, can call aloud with deep.
Pure voice of truth, to waken them who sleep.

 Bad-Gastein, Austria,
        September 9, 1869.

LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS.

"In Alpine valleys, they who watch for dawn
Look never to the east; but fix their eyes
On loftier mountain-peaks of snow, which rise
To west or south."