Only those whom the glacier-spears Pierce as they walk, On the scoriac heights where the ultimate Fears Nakedly stalk, Can taste the quivering cup of the dawn Where the cowslips grow And the starlings flying over the lawn Their shadows throw. These find in that enchanted hour The lilac-tinted cuckoo-flower. These know in that anointed shrine The rain-washed blue-bell's scent divine. Only those who have harrowed Hell Can read the runes of a sea-tossed shell. Only those who have challenged God Can hear the worms whisper beneath the sod. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RETROSPECT by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALFRED MOIR by EDGAR LEE MASTERS ON AN INFANT WHICH DIED BEFORE BAPTISM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE CENTENNIAL MEDITATION OF COLUMBIA by SIDNEY LANIER AN ELEGIE, OR FRIENDS PASSION, FOR HIS ASTROPHILL by MATTHEW ROYDEN ON THE DISCOVERIES OF CAPTAIN LEWIS [JANUARY 14, 1807] by JOEL BARLOW WHILE LOVELINESS GOES BY by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |