“And hast thou nerve enough?” he said,

That gray Old Man, above whose head

Unnumbered years had rolled,—

“And hast thou nerve to view,” he cried,

“The incarnate Fiend that Heaven defied!

—Art thou indeed so bold?

“Say, canst thou, with unshrinking gaze,

Sustain, rash youth, the withering blaze

Of that unearthly eye,

That blasts where’er it lights,—the breath