Monadnock from Chesterfield

 

The merest bulge above the horizon’s rim

   Of purplish blue, which you might think a cloud

   Low lying there, -- that is Monadnock proud,

Full seventy miles away. But far and dim

Although it be, I still can without glass

   Descry, as I were standing happy there

   Upon the topmost ledges gray and bare,

Something which with the shadows will not pass: --

A vision that abides: a fair young girl

   Lying her length; her hair all disarrayed

   By the bold mountain wind; her cheeks aglow;

As if that rocky summit should unfurl

   A rose in June! And what if I had said,

   “Thrice fair Monadnock with her lying so!”

 

John White Chadwick