Zermatt to the Matterhorn

Read 'Zermatt to the Matterhorn' by 'Thomas Hardy' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

Zermatt to the Matterhorn by Thomas Hardy

 Thirty-two years since, up against the sun, 
Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight, 
Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height, 
And four lives paid for what the seven had won. 

They were the first by whom the deed was done, 
And when I look at thee, my mind takes flight 
To that day's tragic feat of manly might, 
As though, till then, of history thou hadst none. 

Yet ages ere men topped thee, late and soon 
Thou watch'dst each night the planets lift and lower; 
Thou gleam'dst to Joshua's pausing sun and moon, 
And brav'dst the tokening sky when Caesar's power 
Approached its bloody end: yea, saw'st that Noon 
When darkness filled the earth till the ninth hour.

Form: Italian Sonnet

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