Stretched the precipitous path, tortuous and grey,
Leaping from crag to crag. Then all the gloom
Seized fast about me, as with hesitant stride
I took its edge initiative. Yet on
Went I, holding a dauntless pride
Steady within me; on and on, upon
The slippery crags, amid the dunes and meres,
Poised oft o’er bottomless pits, turning beside
Pitiless tarns, brackish with mortal tears.
As forth I strode, fairer and yet more fair