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Robert Laurence Binyon - Montenegro
Work rating: Low

Coiled in shadow, the serpent seas
 Engirdle perilous hills sublime:
 By tortuous, steep degrees
 Toward the morn I climb.

 Before me the mountain soaring vast
 Secludes the bright east; cold the air
 Descends from ridges, massed
 In peaks, snowily fair.

 But pale in the northern distance blushes
 On sparkling ranges a light austere;
 Tingeing the shade, it flushes
 Edge and barrier sheer.

 Cattaro roofs and Cattaro quay
 Grow faint and delicate; ships that ride
 On the dense blue slumbering sea
 Dwindle; on either side

 From mirroring gulfs the mountains bare
 Are mapped to the heaven, strange as a dream;
 The Adriatic afar
 Trembles, a molten gleam:

 Till the sun salutes me, met with him
 On the naked summit; closed behind,
 That vision of countries dim
 Pales and fades from the mind.

 Now drinking the eager lofty air,
 The spirit leaps, as the eyes behold
 Valleys severely fair,
 Freedom`s fortress of old.

 Young, stern soldiers in rich attire,
 Haughtily moving with silent pace
 And eyes of a tranquil fire;
 Sons of a tameless race;

 Aged mothers, bowed with toil,
 Old men, bearded and gray, are here.
 Plants of a stubborn soil
 That knows not the seed of fear.

 O Mountain, mother of men, that bearest
 Heroes; foster--mother of fame!
 I hail thee; well thou wearest
 Thy dark, invincible name.

 Thou plantest the footstep firm, and the heart
 In the breast strengthenest, hardy to try
 Peril, and play its part
 With full, unwavering eye.

 At mighty breasts of the ancient hills
 Nourished, thy sons in their veins yet keep
 The force that feeds and fills
 Torrents, to dance and leap.

 Trees that with clenchéd root possess
 Their rocky beds, oak and pine,
 Alone thou endurest; nor less
 Permittest in children of thine.
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