Mountain Idylls, and Other Poems
Alfred Castner King
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
"The author of this unpretentious volume has long questioned the advisability of adding a book to our already inflated and overloaded literature, unless it should contain something in the nature of a deviation from beaten literary paths.
Whether the reading public will regard this as such or not is a question for the future to determine, as every book is a creature of circumstance, and at the date of its publication an algebraic unknown quantity.
It was not the original intention of the author to publish any of his effusions in collective form until more mature years and riper judgment should better qualify him for the task of composition, and should enable him to still further pursue the important studies of etymology, rhetoric, Latin and Greek, and complete the education which youthful environment denied.
On the 17th of March, A.D. 1900, occurred an accident in the form of a premature mining explosion which banished the light of the Colorado sun from his eyes forever, adding the almost insurmountable barrier of total and hopeless blindness to those of limited means and insufficient education. At first further effort seemed useless, but as time meliorates in some degree even the most deplorable and distressing physical conditions, ambition slowly rallied, and while lying for several months a patient in various hospitals in an ineffectual attempt to regain even partial sight, the following ideas and efforts of past years were gradually recalled from the recesses of memory, and reduced to their present form, in which, with no small hesitation and misgiving, they are presented to the consideration of the reading public, which in the humble opinion of the author has frequently failed to receive and appreciate productions of vastly superior merit." (Excerpt from the Preface) (2 hr 32 min)
Chapters
Dedication / Preface | 6:00 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
Grandeur | 8:35 | Read by Cavaet |
Nature's Child | 1:16 | Read by Joebin |
To the Pines | 0:43 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
Reflections | 1:37 | Read by Ethan |
Life's Mystery | 0:50 | Read by Ethan |
The Fallen Tree | 2:04 | Read by Ethan |
There is an Air of Majesty | 1:12 | Read by George Emerson |
Think Not That the Heart Is Devoid of Emotion | 1:07 | Read by George Emerson |
Humanity's Stream | 7:27 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
Nature's Lullaby | 1:34 | Read by Larry Wilson |
The Spirit of freedom is Born of the Mountains | 0:43 | Read by Sawyer Rewis |
The Valley of the San Miguel | 2:25 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
To Mother Huberta | 2:03 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Suggested by a Mountain Eagle | 2:06 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
The Silvery San Juan | 2:32 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
As the Shifting Sands of the Desert | 1:50 | Read by George Emerson |
Missed | 0:57 | Read by George Emerson |
If I Have Lived Before | 1:11 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
The Darker Side | 1:28 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
The Miner | 2:08 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
Life's Undercurrent | 3:04 | Read by George Emerson |
They Cannot See the Wreaths We Place | 1:18 | Read by George Emerson |
Mother—Alpha and Omega | 2:03 | Read by George Emerson |
Empty are the Mother's Arms | 0:49 | Read by George Emerson |
In Deo Fides | 1:38 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Shall Love, as the Bridal Wreath, Whither and Die? | 0:58 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
Shall Our Memories Live When the Sod Rolls Above Us? | 1:27 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
A Reverie | 1:15 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
Love's Plea | 1:05 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust | 1:39 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Despair | 1:59 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Hidden Sorrows | 1:53 | Read by Christine Peterson |
O, a Beautiful Thing Is the Flower That Fadeth! | 1:01 | Read by George Emerson |
Smiles | 1:50 | Read by Christine Peterson |
A Request | 1:44 | Read by Stefan Von Blon |
Battle Hymn | 1:18 | Read by Denise Ray |
The Nations Peril | 2:12 | Read by Denise Ray |
Echoes from Galilee | 5:25 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Go, And Sin No More | 1:02 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Gently Lead Me, Star Divine | 0:57 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Dying Hymn | 0:54 | Read by Larry Wilson |
In Mortem Meditare | 3:20 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Deprive This Strange and Complex World | 1:06 | Read by Stefan Von Blon |
The Legend of St. Regimund | 7:36 | Read by Larry Wilson |
As The Indian | 1:12 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
The Fragrant Perfume of the Flowers | 0:59 | Read by Christine Peterson |
An Answer | 0:54 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
Fame | 1:31 | Read by Andrew Gaunce |
The First Storm | 0:51 | Read by Cavaet |
Thoughts | 1:35 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
From A Saxon Legend | 3:31 | Read by Alan Mapstone |
Christmas Chimes | 1:09 | Read by Ellies |
The Unknowable | 3:12 | Read by Ellies |
The Suicide | 3:00 | Read by Ellies |
I Think When I Stand in the Presence of Death | 1:32 | Read by Ellies |
Hope | 5:08 | Read by Ellies |
Metabole | 30:48 | Read by Ellies |