“Cold, impossible, ahead
Lifts the mountain's lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.”

—  W. H. Auden

First published in book form in Look, Stranger! (1936; US title On this Island)
Source: Autumn Song (1936), Lines 17–20

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Cold, impossible, ahead Lifts the mountain's lovely head Whose white waterfall could bless Travellers in their last …" by W. H. Auden?
W. H. Auden photo
W. H. Auden122
Anglo-American poet 1907–1973

Related quotes

Han-shan photo

“Cold Mountain cold
Ice freezes rock
Mountains are green
Snow is white
Sun shines bright
Every thing melt
Every thing warm
Warms old man”

Han-shan Chinese monk and poet

Cold Mountain Transcendental Poetry

Bashō Matsuo photo

“Mountain-rose petals
Falling, falling, falling now…
Waterfall music”

Bashō Matsuo (1644–1694) Japanese poet

Source: Japanese Haiku

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“O lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast:
O press it to thine own again,
Where it will break at last!”

Percy Bysshe Shelley The Indian Serenade

The Indian Serenade (1819), st. 3

Harriet Beecher Stowe photo

“There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Christina Rossetti photo

“Sleeping at last, the trouble and tumult over,
Sleeping at last, the struggle and horror past,
Cold and white, out of sight of friend and of lover,
Sleeping at last.”

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) English poet

Sleeping at Last http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/crossetti/bl-crossetti-sleep.htm, st. 1 (1893) .

Terence McKenna photo

“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed. ”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Han-shan photo

“When people look for the road in the clouds
The cloud road disappears
The mountains are tall and steep
The streams are wide and still
Green mountains ahead and behind
White clouds to east and west
If you want to find the cloud road
Seek it within”

Han-shan Chinese monk and poet

Cold Mountain Transcendental Poetry

Mirkka Rekola photo

“THE DESCENT: Faster I travel into the cold of the mountain / than I return from it. / One can't see the sun. / Wait, I come closer / as beside me the frozen snow / dwindles.”

Mirkka Rekola (1931–2014) Finnish writer

Han-shan photo

“Remote remote Cold Mountain road
Cold cold ice cold cliff
Chirp chirp often many birds
Lone lone no sign people
Swish swish wind blow face
Gentle gentle snow settle head
Day day no see sun
Year year no see spring”

Han-shan Chinese monk and poet

Cold Mountain Transcendental Poetry

Han-shan photo

“Climb the steep Cold Mountain way
Roads to Cold Mountain are many and never ending
The valleys are long and deep, the peaks piled high
The streams are wide, the grass is thick
The moss is slippery though there is no rain
The pines sigh though there is no wind
Who can escape the snares of the world
And come to sit with me among the white clouds?”

Han-shan Chinese monk and poet

Cold Mountain Transcendental Poetry

Related topics