The Blind Summit

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Title:     The Blind Summit
Author: William Watson [More Titles by Watson]

[A Viennese gentleman, who had climbed the Hoch-Koenig
without a guide, was found dead, in a sitting posture, near the
summit, upon which he had written, "It is cold, and clouds shut
out the view."--_Vide_ the _Daily News_ of September 10, 1891.]

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."

[The end]
William Watson's poem: Blind Summit

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