The mountain sat upon the plain
In his eternal chair,
His observation omnifold,
His inquest everywhere.
The seasons prayed around his knees,
Like children round a sire:
Grandfather of the days is he,
Of dawn the ancestor.
Credits
Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet now regarded as one of the most original voices in the English language. Writing in near-total seclusion in Amherst, Massachusetts, she produced nearly 1,800 poems, most published only after her death in 1886. In "The Mountain," her characteristically compressed verse elevates a geological feature into a mythic patriarch, blending the natural world with a deep sense of cosmic time.
