Poems (Hoffman)/The Climbers

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

THE CLIMBERS

You have reached the top of your earthly stair,
You must soon descend, descend,
He must be content to climb with care,
Whose ladder hath no end.

The climbers for wealth and earthly fame
Will leave him below, below;
He climbeth to write an immortal name,
An unending life to know.

Then rise to thy choice of a worldly crown,
Thy zenith is found, is found;
He pities thee climbing the endless way,
Though he stand on the lowest round;
His pathway is up and up and up,
And thine to the ground, the ground.