Up and up, the Incense-burner Peak! In my heart is stored what my eyes and ears perceived. All the year -- detained by official business; To-day at last I got a chance to go. Grasping the creepers, I clung to dangerous rocks; My hands and feet -- weary with groping for hold. There came with me three or four friends, But two friends dared not go further. At last we reached the topmost crest of the Peak; My eyes were blinded, my soul rocked and reeled. The chasm beneath me -- ten thousand feet; The ground I stood on, only a foot wide. If you have not exhausted the scope of seeing and hearing, How can you realize the wideness of the world? The waters of the River looked narrow as a ribbon, P'en Castle smaller than a man's fist. How it clings, the dust of the world's halter! It chokes my limbs: I cannot shake it away. Thinking of retirement, I heaved an envious sigh, Then, with lowered head, came back to the Ants' Nest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ETERNITY BLUES by HAYDEN CARRUTH EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 3. THE VOLUNTARY PRISONER by PHILIP AYRES LOGOGRIPH by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LILIES: 27. THE WAVE-TOSSED VESSEL by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THIS WAY FOR ROMANCE by BERTON BRALEY IN MEMORIAM: A.F (OB. OCT. 12, 1879) by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN |