Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Sentiment: I. TimeThe Ascent of Man
Rossiter Worthington Raymond (1840–1918)H
To gaze on sky and land and sea,
While in his ear the whisper burned,
“Behold, these all belong to thee!”
O thrill of blood! O joy of Soul!
O peaks with ever-widening view!
O race, with still-receding goal!
Stumbling and falling, wandering far,
Yet still advancing, while before
His footsteps shone the guiding star.
He harnessed to his need or whim;
He bade the lightning of the cloud
Run with his words, and toil for him.
Destroyed; created; brought to light
The secrets of the deepest deep,
The glories of the highest height!
With sense refined and vision keen,
Explored, beyond this lower land,
The treasures of a realm unseen.
No more, as on the primal sod,
A creature yet ungrown, but now
Lord of two worlds, and child of God!