Monadnock in Early Spring

     Cloud-topped and splendid, dominating all

     The little lesser hills which compass thee,

     Thou standest, bright with April’s buoyancy,

     Yet holding Winter in some shaded wall

     Of stern, steep rock; and startled by the call

     Of Spring, thy trees flush with expectancy

     And cast a cloud of crimson, silently,

     Above the snowy crevices where fall

     Pale shriveled oak leaves, where the snow beneath

     Melts at their phantom touch. Another year

     Is quick with import. Such each year has been.

     Unmoved thou watchest all, and all bequeath

     Some jewel to thy diadem of power,

     Thou pledge of greater majesty unseen.

     Amy Lowell (1912)