Classic Poem

We are not always equal to our fate,
Nor true to our conditions. Doubt and fear
Beset the bravest in their high career,
At moments when the soul, no more elate
With expectation, sinks beneath the time.
The masters have their weakness. “I would climb,”
Said Raleigh, gazing on the highest hill—
“But that I tremble with the fear to fall!”
Apt was the answer of the high-soul'd Queen,—
“If thy heart fail thee, never climb at all!”
The heart! if that be sound, confirms the rest,
Crowns genius with his lion will and mien,
And, from the conscious virtue in the breast,
To trembling nature gives both strength and will!