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...AN ELEGY UPON THE DEATH OF DOCTOR DONNE, DEAN OF PAUL'S by THOMAS CAREW THE LONELY HOUSE by EMILY DICKINSON THE POET AND HIS SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR INTO BATTLE by JULIAN GRENFELL CYNTHIADES: TO CYNTHIA ON CONCEALMENT OF HER BEAUTY by FRANCIS KYNASTON A YOUTH TO HIS FATHER by WALTER R. ADAMS |