Where will the ladder land? Who knows?--who knows? He who would seize the planet zone by zone As on a battlemarch, for use alone, Nor stops for visionary wants and woes But like the Bruce's, on, his heart he throws And leaves behind the dreamer and the drone? Great is his work indeed, his service great, Who seeks for Nature but to subjugate, Break and bereave, build upward and create And, hampering her, to carry heave and drag Points to results,--towns, cables, cars and ships. Whilst I in dim green meadows lean and lag, He counts his course in truth by vigorous steps, By steps of stairs; but I add crag to crag. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE FIRST DAY: PAUL REVERE'S RIDE [APRIL 1775] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW MADRIGAL: 109 by MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI THE MARYLAND BATTALION [AUGUST 27, 1776] by JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER THE KEARSARGE (1894) by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE A TOMB BY THE SEA by ASCLEPIADES OF SAMOS SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 18. A PORTRAIT by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |