IF thou would'st stand on Etna's burning brow, With smoke above, and roaring flame below; And gaze adown that molten gulf reveal'd, Till thy soul shudder'd and thy senses reel'd: If thou wouldst beard Niag'ra in his pride, Or stem the billows of Propontic tide; Scale all alone some dizzy Alpine @3haut@1, And shriek "Excelsior!" among the snow: Would'st tempt all deaths, all dangers that may be -- Perils by land, and perils on the sea; This vast round world, I say, if thou wouldst view it -- Then, why the dickens don't you go and do it? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UPON PRUE, HIS MAID by ROBERT HERRICK THE SECOND COMING by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO HIS INGENIOUS FRIEND, MR. N. TATE by PHILIP AYRES POEM TO NEGRO AND WHITES by MAXWELL BODENHEIM SONG by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE THE WANDERER: 6. PALINGENSIS: EUTHANASIA (WRITTEN AFTER LONG ILLNESS) by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |