A Hidden Life

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I.

Upon a rock, high on a mountain side,

Thousands of feet above the lake-sea's lip, A rock in which old waters' rise and dip,

Plunge and recoil, and backward eddying tide Had, age-long, worn, while races lived and died,

Involved channels, where the sea-weed's drip Followed the ebb; and now earth-grasses sip

Fresh dews from heaven, whereby on earth they bide--

  I sat and gazed southwards. A dry flow Of withering wind blew on my drooping strength From o'er the awful desert's burning length.

  Behind me piled, away and upward go Great sweeps of savage mountains--up, away, Where panthers roam, and snow gleams all the day.



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