Mont Blanc 1816

The Mont Blanc yet gleams on high – the power is there
The still and solemn power of many sights,
And many sounds, and much of life and death.
In the calm darkness of the moonless night,
In the lone glare of day, the snow descend
Upon the Mountain; none beholds them there,
Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun,
Or the star-beams dart through them:-Winds contend
Silently there, and heap the snow with breath
Rapid and strong, but silently! Its home
The voiceless lightning in these solitudes
Keep innocently, and like vapour broods
Over the snow. The secret Strenght of things
Which govern thought, and to the infinite dome
Of Heaven is as a law, inhabits thee!
And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If the human mind’s imaginings
Silence and solitude were vacancy?

July 23, 1816
Mont Blanc – Percy Bysshe Shelley – ed. TARARA’ – 1996