But a troubled spirit led me,
Lured by some guiding star,
And o’er the dim heights sped me,
To sunset realms afar;
So with yearning and strife that seemed ever
To be linked with toil and pain,
I crossed with a mighty endeavor,
And passed beyond in the plain.
III.
And a nameless terror bound me
As I gazed on those earth-born spires,
Which, towering above and around me,
Seemed wrapped in lurid fires;
And a spirit of doubt passed o’er me,
And I murmured with half-bowed head,
“Hath ever a mortal before me
Crossed over a height so dread?”
IV.
But on I passed, unheeding,
Through the noontide’s ebbing light,
While, ever behind me receding,
Sank the mountains lessening height;
Till at last ’neath the distant heaven,
The scarce seen crests upreared
In the purple waves of even,
Sank down and disappeared.
V.
I arose at that dim-lined hour,
When youth and manhood meet,
But Grief and o’erwhelming power
Cast her burden at my feet;
And it rose like a mountain dreary,
And my heart was faint within,
For my soul grew sick and weary
In a world of death and sin.