The World Cry[]
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), 1818. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Joy, light, and love I crave
And shall discover —
Life’s wild adventure opening to my will:
High thought and brave,
The rapture of a lover,
The Vision gleaming from yon western hill.
Beyond my present sight
There lies some sweet allure,
Some crested glory waiting to be won;
Shimmering in light,
Beautiful and sure,
Beckoning bright hands that call me on.
I know not where it lies,
Nor whither I go, nor how
The way is paved—with pleasure or with pain;
But the search is in my eyes,
And the dust upon my brow
Shall turn to aureoled gold when I attain.
• • • • • • • • •
Oh, old old hope—
Unfulfilled desire!
Pitiful the faith,
Beautiful the fire!
Know, soul who criest,
Thy gleaming from afar,
Thy quest of wild adventure,
Thy sweet far star
Shall be the bitter path
To a high stern goal;
So bow thy head
To thine own soul.
This poem is in the public domain