Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Resurgam

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For works with similar titles, see Resurgam.
4553991Poems — ResurgamChristina Georgina Rossetti

RESURGAM.
FROM depth to height, from height to loftier height,
The climber sets his foot and sets his face,
Tracks lingering sunbeams to their halting-place,
And counts the last pulsations of the light.
Strenuous thro' day and unsurprised by night
He runs a race with Time and wins the race,
Emptied and stripped of all save only Grace,
Will, Love, a threefold panoply of might.
Darkness descends for light he toiled to seek:
He stumbles on the darkened mountain-head,
  Left breathless in the unbreathable thin air,
Made freeman of the living and the dead:—
He wots not he has topped the topmost peak,
  But the returning sun will find him there.