The Call of the Mountains, and Other Poems

"The Call of the Mountains, and Other Poems" by James E. Pickering is a poetry collection from the early 1900s that roams through topics like nature, love, death, and how time marches onward, molded by Romantic and early Modern ideas. From the grandeur of the Swiss mountains to thinking about what it means to be human, the poems cover a lot of ground. It starts with a poem that sings to the enchanting beauty of mountains, and then goes on to explore personal moments, where one feels memories of places passed or a reflective mood as one contemplates the arrival of winter days. Full of vivid images and deep feeling, Picketing calls the reader to explore how people and the natural world intertwine. All through the work, there is a strong awareness of the flow of time, evoking a longing for the past and how beauty and life are fleeting.