NPG 2515(23) (1a)

To W. Brockedon:
on reading his "Passes of the Alps"

Artist and Author, and undaunted Spirit,
How in these level regions dost thou fare, -
Thou who dost seem, in truth, born to inherit
The freedom which belongs to mountain air?
Thou,- who has made the eternal Alps thy care,
Each peak and precipice, pass and ravine,
And every frowning rock and sylvan scene,
Come,- shew us all these regions, bright and bare!

Look! - it is done. How well the painter dips
His pencil in the sunshine and the cloud!
Look, how the torrent runs,- and how Heaven clips
The earth in azure! ... Yet, then! be not proud:
For rather should this world of wood and plain,
These mountains, in their shrouds of mist and and rain,
Force out stern wonder from a giant's lips,
And 'waken Adoration deep and loud!'

Barry Cornwall
May 1829 .