To reap some harvest from this halt of ours.

Bethink thee, reader, if thou e’er hast been

Among the Alps o’ertaken by a cloud,

Through which all objects were as blindly seen

As moles behold things through their visual shroud;

How, as the vapors dank and thick begin

To thin themselves, the solar sphere’s faint ray

Scarce pierces them,—and readily may’st thou

Conceive (when first I saw it) in what way

To me the sun looked that was setting now.