Nature Notes From Crater Lake
Volume 5, No. 2, August 1932
The Blue Enigma
By Russell Andrews, Park Ranger
THE BLUE ENIGMA
Blue enigma of ages, ringed with
immutable rock,
Fiery cradle of mountains whose barren ridged mock
Man's puny and ceaseless endeavor, his straining and pigmy strife;
Let him look on the patience of ages and know the end of life.
Mighty forge of the Titans where mountains were welded and made,
Glaciers have cooled your seething, hemlocks reared their shade,
And now you mirror your cradle, your mountain-making done,
And now your inscrutable depths reflect the dwelling of the sun.
Now men stand safe on your lava brink with awe intaken breath
Lost in the contemplation of a mighty mountains' death.
