This beautiful poem by Kathleen Raine (picture from
here) is not a conventional romantic poem to a lover.
To My Mountain is about a love of landscape, of a place, that the poet obviously knows well. But I wonder if she's not also addressing a human lover using the metaphor of the mountain to express the pain of unrequited love? I've dipped into Raine's poems & autobiography over the years but I would like to read more of her work.
Since I must love your north
of darkness, cold, and pain,
the snow, the lovely glen,
let me love true worth,
the strength of the hard rock,
the deafening stream of wind
that carries sense away
swifter than flowing blood.
Heather is harsh to tears
and the rough moors
give the buried face no peace
but make me rise,
and, oh, the sweet scent, and purple skies!
