From depth to height, from height to loftier height, The climber sets his foot and sets his face, Tracks lingering sunbeams to their halting-place, And counts the last pulsations of the light. Strenuous thro' day and unsurprised by night He runs a race with Time and wins the race, Emptied and stripped of all save only Grace, Will, Love, a threefold panoply of might. Darkness descends for light he toiled to seek: He stumbles on the darkened mountain-head, Left breathless in the unbreathable thin air, Made freeman of the living and the dead: -- He wots not he has topped the topmost peak, But the returning sun will find him there. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENT BARD, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE SONGS OF NIGHT TO MORNING: 1. AT THE THEATRE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) VERSES TO AN INFANT by BERNARD BARTON THE TREE by BJORNSTJERNE MARTINIUS BJORNSON PAL OF MY HEART by JULIA A. BRAND |