Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON A HILL-TOP, by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A HILL-TOP, by                    
First Line: Steep the ascent to which we laughing bent
Last Line: Wrought in our souls, this moment lives secure.


STEEP the ascent to which we laughing bent;
Slowly we left the weary slope behind.
Now hand in hand upon the crest we stand
Amid the shouting welcome of the wind.

I TOO rejoice with its exultant voice
That we upon this hill-top once have stood
Before we die, together, you and I,
To see our world and know that it is good.

TO find the worth of this perplexing earth
Which yet is of our heaven the only gate;
Where life must be ere immortality
Can its transfiguration consummate.

THE test we need ere spirit may succeed
To perfect power and unimagined scope --
Where dreams untried must ever dreams abide
And hopeless is the unattempted hope.

WE who have caught the substance of our thought
May smile triumphant though our pathways part.
You of my best forever stand possessed,
And greater for your greatness is my heart.

HENCE we shall turn more eager to discern
The hid Shekinah of our neighbour's soul,
Stronger to dare our brief blind part to bear
In the slow silent growth of God's great Whole.

A WORD, the flower of this uplifted hour
Shall turn the chill of time and space to mirth;
A deed that springs from these forgotten things
Shall link us yet across the breadth of earth --

SHALL link us yet, although we may forget.
Our thoughts may pass, our inmost selves endure.
Yea, life and death may come and go like breath --
Wrought in our souls, this moment lives secure.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net