Hark! fast by the window The rushing winds go, To the ice-cumber'd gorges, The vast seas of snow! There the torrents drive upward Their rock-strangled hum; There the avalanche thunders The hoarse torrent dumb. --I come, O ye mountains! Ye torrents, I come! But who is this, by the half-open'd door, Whose figure casts a shadow on the floor? The sweet blue eyes--the soft, ash-colour'd hair-- The cheeks that still their gentle paleness wear-- The lovely lips, with their arch smile that tells The unconquer'd joy in which her spirit dwells-- Ah! they bend nearer-- Sweet lips, this way! Hark! the wind rushes past us! Ah! with that let me go To the clear, waning hill-side, Unspotted by snow, There to watch, o'er the sunk vale, The frore mountain-wall, Where the niched snow-bed sprays down Its powdery fall. There its dusky blue clusters The aconite spreads; There the pines slope, the cloud-strips Hung soft in their heads. No life but, at moments, The mountain-bee's hum. --I come, O ye mountains! Ye pine-woods, I come! Forgive me! forgive me! Ah, Marguerite, fain Would these arms reach to clasp thee! But see! 'tis in vain. In the void air, towards thee, My stretch'd arms are cast; But a sea rolls between us-- Our different past! To the lips, ah! of others Those lips have been prest, And others, ere I was, Were strain'd to that breast; Far, far from each other Our spirits have grown; And what heart knows another? Ah! who knows his own? Blow, ye winds! lift me with you! I come to the wild. Fold closely, O Nature! Thine arms round thy child. To thee only God granted A heart ever new-- To all always open, To all always true. Ah! calm me, restore me; And dry up my tears On thy high mountain-platforms, Where morn first appears; Where the white mists, for ever, Are spread and upfurl'd-- In the stir of the forces Whence issued the world. 3. A FAREWELL My horse's feet beside the lake, Where sweet the unbroken moonbeams lay, Sent echoes through the night to wake Each glistening strand, each heath-fringed bay. The poplar avenue was pass'd, And the roof'd bridge that spans the stream; Up the steep street I hurried fast, Led by thy taper's starlike beam.