Extract from THE LADDER OF ST.AUGUSTINE

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-82

We have not wings, we cannot soar;

  But we have feet to scale and climb

By slow degrees, by more and more,

  The cloudy summits of our time. 

The mighty pyramids of stone

  That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,

When nearer seen, and better known,

  Are but gigantic flights of stairs. 

The distant mountains, that uprear

  Their solid bastions to the skies,

Are crossed by pathways, that appear

  As we to higher levels rise. 

The heights by great men reached and kept

  Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

  Were toiling upward in the night. 

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