ABOVE, a mountain ten thousand feet high: Below, a river a thousand fathoms deep. A strip of green, walled by cliffs of stone: Wide enough for the passage of a single reed. At Chu-t'ang a straight cleft yawns: At Yen-yu islands block the stream. Long before night the walls are black with dusk; Without wind white waves rise. The big rocks are like a flat sword: The little rocks resemble ivory tusks. We are stuck fast and cannot move a step. How much the less, three hundred miles? Frail and slender, the twisted-bamboo rope: Weak, the dangerous hold of the towers' feet. A single slip -- the whole convoy lost: And @3my@1 life hangs on @3this@1 thread! I have heard a saying "He that has an upright heart Shall walk scathless through the lands of Man and Mo." How can I believe that since the world began In every shipwreck none have drowned but rogues? And how can I, born in evil days And fresh from failure, ask a kindness of Fate? Often I fear that these un-talented limbs Will be laid at last in an un-named grave! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PORTRAIT OF MY ROOF by JAMES GALVIN TO BE LIKED BY YOU WOULD BE A CALAMITY by MARIANNE MOORE THE POET (2) by ISAAC ROSENBERG DISASTER by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY THE PAINS OF SLEEP by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |