Poems (Jackson)/Opportunity
For works with similar titles, see Opportunity.
OPPORTUNITY.
DO not know if, climbing some steep hillThrough fragrant wooded pass, this glimpse I bought;Or whether in some midday I was caughtTo upper air, where visions of God's willIn pictures to our quickened sense fulfilHis word. But this I saw:His word. But this I saw:A path I soughtThrough wall of rock. No human fingers wroughtThe golden gates which opened, sudden, still,And wide. My fear was hushed by my delight.Surpassing fair the lands; my path lay plain; Alas! so spell-bound, feasting on the sight,I paused, that I but reached the threshold bright,When, swinging swift, the golden gates againWere rocky walls, by which I wept in vain!