Poem by William Watson

The Blind Summit

So mounts the child of ages of desire,
Man, up the steeps of Thought; and would behold
Yet purer peaks, touched with unearthlier fire,
In sudden prospect virginally new;
But on the lone last height he sighs: "'Tis cold,
      And clouds shut out the view."

Ah, doom of mortals! Vexed with phantoms old,
Old phantoms that waylay us and pursue,—
Weary of dreams,—we think to see unfold
The eternal landscape of the Real and True;
And on our Pisgah can but write: "'Tis cold,
      And clouds shut out the view."

1. In Laleham Churchyard
2. On Landor's “Hellenics”
3. Mensis Lacrimarum
4. Scentless Flow'rs I Bring Thee
5. England to Ireland

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