Because You Came to Climb

TURN on this shelf of cliff, and see
Far off the brightly patterned plain
Webbed with those roads that memory
Alone may now regain,
In all their dust and heat
Surprised by flowers —
Mark the tall towns, where many a street
Rang with bright hours!

Because you came to climb the sky,
You noted not the rock grow steep,
Though ominous wings at times went by
Adrift as if on sleep.
Now iridescent light
Veils all the plain
So many storms made strange with night,
Sombre with rain.

And rock is chill on either hand,
And sky is just as far above,
And there below you lies the land
You were so heedless of,
So burning went your haste
Through field and town
To seek the height you finally faced,
Whence you look down.

At least for this new sight was given
The height — though never to reach the sky,
But only now to see your heaven
Reversed, before you die;
And yet, you came to climb,
And you endure —
So turn your face to the rock of Time,
Make one more foothold sure!