Barèges
from The French Of Lefranc De Pompignan
Barèges - meaning Summary
From Harsh Peaks to Home
The speaker departs cold, forbidding mountain landscapes and torrents and longs for gentler lowland scenery and the comforts of home. The poem contrasts harsh, misty, and tiring highlands with warm meadows, flowing brooks, and hearth smoke near the Garonne. It expresses relief at leaving bleak, exhausting terrain and a yearning to reach a tranquil familiar place that soothes the mind and restores emotional well-being.
Read Complete AnalysesI leave you, ye cold mountain chains, Dwelling of warriors stark and frore! You, may these eyes behold no more, Rave on the horizon of our plains. Vanish, ye frightful, gloomy views! Ye rocks that mount up to the clouds! Of skies, enwrapped in misty shrouds, Impracticable avenues! Ye torrents, that with might and main Break pathways through the rocky walls, With your terrific waterfalls Fatigue no more my weary brain! Arise, ye landscapes full of charms, Arise, ye pictures of delight! Ye brooks, that water in your flight The flowers and harvests of our farms! You I perceive, ye meadows green, Where the Garonne the lowland fills, Not far from that long chain of hills, With intermingled vales between. You wreath of smoke, that mounts so high, Methinks from my own hearth must come; With speed, to that beloved home, Fly, ye too lazy coursers, fly! And bear me thither, where the soul In quiet may itself possess, Where all things soothe the mind's distress, Where all things teach me and console.
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