Poem: A Mystery

There is so much wonder and mystery in the world. Allow this beautifully written poem by John Greenleaf Whittier to help you see mountain landscapes in a new light. Feel the emotions that bubble up to the surface as you breathe and settle in. Enjoy this poem to help you relax and find peace.

Transcript

A Mystery by John Greenleaf Whittier The river hemmed with leaning trees,

Wound through its meadows green.

A low blue line of mountains showed The open pines between.

One sharp,

Tall peak above them all,

Clear in the sunlight sprang.

I saw the river of my dreams,

The mountains that I sang.

No clue of memory led me on,

But well the ways I knew.

A feeling of familiar things with every footstep grew.

Not otherwise,

Above its crag,

Could lean the blasted pine.

Not otherwise the maple hold Aloft its red ensign.

So up the long and shorn foothills,

The mountain road should creep.

So green and low,

The meadow fold,

Its red-haired kind asleep.

The river wound as it should wind,

Their place the mountains took.

The white-torn fringes of their clouds Wore no unwanted look.

Yet never before that river's rim Was pressed by feet of mine.

Never before mine eyes had crossed That broken mountain line.

A presence,

Strange at once and known,

Walked with me as my guide.

The skirts of some forgotten life Trailed noiseless at my side.

Was it a dim remember dream Or glimpse through ions old?

The secret which the mountains kept The river never told.

But from the vision ere it passed,

A tender hope I drew.

And pleasant as a dawn of spring,

The thought within me grew.

That love would temper every change And soften all surprise.

And misty with the dreams of earth,

The hills of heaven arise.