noon
On the edge of tremendous precipices , and within the hollow of the cliffs , below which the clouds often floated , were seen villages , spires , and convent towers ; while green pastures and vineyards spread their hues at the feet of perpendicular rocks of marble , or of granite , whose points , tufted with alpine shrubs , or exhibiting only massy crags , rose above each other , till they terminated in the snowtopped mountain , whence the torrent fell , that thundered along the valley . The snow was not yet melted on the summit of Mount Cenis , over which the travellers passed ; but Emily , as she looked upon its clear lake and extended plain , surrounded by broken cliffs , saw , in imagination , the verdant beauty it would exhibit when the snows should be gone , and the shepherds , leading up the midsummer flocks from Piedmont , to pasture on its flowery summit , should add Arcadian figures to Arcadian landscape . As she descended on the Italian side , the precipices became still more tremendous , and the prospects still more wild and majestic , over which the shifting lights threw all the pomp of colouring . Emily delighted to observe the snowy tops of the mountains under the passing influence of the day , blushing with morning , glowing with the brightness of noon , or just tinted with the purple evening . The haunt of man could now only be discovered by the simple hut of the shepherd and the hunter , or by the rough pine bridge thrown across the torrent , to assist the latter in his chase of the chamois over crags where , but for this vestige of man , it would have been believed only the chamois or the wolf dared to venture . As Emily gazed upon one of these perilous bridges , with the cataract foaming beneath it , some images came to her mind , which she afterwards combined in the following STORIED SONNET The weary traveller , who all night long Has climb 'd among the Alps ' tremendous steeps , Skirting the pathless precipice , where throng Wild forms of danger ; as he onward creeps If , chance , his anxious eye at distance sees The mountain-shepherd 's solitary home , Peeping from forth the moon-illumin 'd trees , What sudden transports to his bosom come ! But , if between some hideous chasm yawn , Where the cleft pine a doubtful bridge displays , In dreadful silence , on the brink , forlorn He stands , and views in the faint rays Far , far below , the torrent 's rising surge , And listens to the wild impetuous roar ; Still eyes the depth , still shudders on the verge , Fears to return , nor dares to venture o'er .