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Nearing The Snow-Line

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

Topics: classic

Slow toiling upward from' the misty vale,     I leave the bright enamelled zones below;     No more for me their beauteous bloom shall glow,     Their lingering sweetness load the morning gale;     Few are the slender flowerets, scentless, pale,     That on their ice-clad stems all trembling blow     Along the margin of unmelting snow;     Yet with unsaddened voice thy verge I hail,     White realm of peace above the flowering line;     Welcome thy frozen domes, thy rocky spires!     O'er thee undimmed the moon-girt planets shine,     On thy majestic altars fade the fires     That filled the air with smoke of vain desires,     And all the unclouded blue of heaven is thine!     1870.

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Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Slow toiling upward from' the misty vale,..." by Oliver Wendell Holmes

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Oliver Wendell Holmes

About Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) was an American poet, physician, and essayist. His poems "Old Ironsides" and "The Chambered Nautilus" are American classics. He was part of the Fireside Poets group.

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