Poems (Greenwell)/Ascending
SONNETS
ASCENDING.
They who from mountain peaks have gazed upon The wide illimitable heavens, have said, That still receding as they climbed, outspread, The blue vault deepens over them, and one By one drawn further back, each starry sun Shoots down a feebler splendour overhead. So, Saviour! as our mounting spirits, led Along Faith's living way to Thee, have won A nearer access, up the difficult track Still pressing, on that rarer atmosphere, When low beneath us flits the cloudy rack, We see Thee drawn within a widening sphere Of glory, from us further, further back,— Yet is it then because we are more near.