[The Poem is here simply reprinted verbatim in order to complete the book as Shelley issued it. The only alteration of text is the substitution of tracks for the misprint tracts in line 2, page 203. For various readings &c. see Vol. I of my edition of the Poetical Works, pages 72 et seq. The date at the end of the poem has been altered so as to aecord with the facts. "June 23, 1816" is printed by both Shelley and Mrs. Shelley; but that is the date of the excursion from Montalegre to Hermance and Nerni. (See pages 171-2); and it was not till the 21st of July that Shelley and his party entered the Vale of Chamouni,-not till the 23rd that he saw from the source of the Arveiron the glacier of Montanvert, and visited in the evening the glacier of Boisson (see page 192). The primary inspiration recorded by Mrs Shelley as having taken place while the poet lingered on the Bridge of Arve on his way through the Vale of Chamouni," seems to be referable to the 21st. when, on the road from Servoz (pages 189-90), the party must have crossed the bridge which Shelley calls (page 197) "Pont Pellisier, a wooden bridge over the Arve, and the ravine of the Arve"; but the poem, "composed," as Shelley says in the preface (page 120), "under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited by the objects which it attempts to describe," was in all probability first written down on the evening of the 23rd of July 1816, whether while the poet was out with Ducrée, or after his return to Chamouni. We cannot, however, but assume from its high finish, that it was much elaborated on more than one occasion between that evening and the date of publication.-H. B. F.] 66 MONT BLANC. LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. I. THE everlasting universe of things Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, In the wild woods, among the mountains lone, Where waterfalls around it leap for ever, Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river II. Thus thou, Ravine of Arve-dark, deep Ravine- Thine earthly rainbows stretched across the sweep Robes some unsculptured image; the strange sleep Thy caverns echoing to the Arve's commotion, With the clear universe of things around; One legion of wild thoughts, whose wandering wings. In the still cave of the witch Poesy, Seeking among the shadows that pass by Ghosts of all things that are, some shade of thee, Some phantom, some faint image; till the breast From which they fled recalls them, thou art there! III. Some say that gleams of a remoter world In dream, and does the mightier world of sleep Its circles? For the very spirit fails, Driven like a homeless cloud from steep to steep Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky, Save when the eagle brings some hunter's bone, IV. The fields, the lakes, the forests, and the streams, All things that move and breathe with toil and sound Remote, serene, and inaccessible: And this, the naked countenance of earth, On which I gaze, even these primæval mountains Teach the adverting mind. The glaciers creep Like snakes that watch their prey, from their far fountains, Slow rolling on; there, many a precipice, Frost and the Sun in scorn of mortal power Have piled: dome, pyramid, and pinnacle, A city of death, distinct with many a tower Is there, that from the boundaries of the sky Rolls its perpetual stream; vast pines are strewing Its destined path, or in the mangled soil |