Classic Poem

WHEREIN, HOWEVER UNWORTHY, HE HAS DARED TO GAZE AT HER GLORY AND SING

I dared to think my wings could proudly sweep —
Not through my power but through omnipotent grace —
Stirruped with music to the golden place
Where Love and Death their double bastions keep.
I flounder now: I cannot make that leap,
That glittering arc through soaring silver space —
" Who swoops too far may fall upon his face, "
I said, " The barricades of Heaven are steep. "
That height the scope of genius cannot span,
How much the less my heavy gait and tongue:
For Nature in her stood Olympian.
Love followed Nature and such flags outflung
Declaring her divinity, never man
Might even look — yet I have looked — and sung!