Poems (Jackson)/Opportunity
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DO not know if, climbing some steep hill
Through fragrant wooded pass, this glimpse I bought;
Or whether in some midday I was caught
To upper air, where visions of God's will
In pictures to our quickened sense fulfil
His word. But this I saw:
A path I sought
Through wall of rock. No human fingers wrought
The 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 again
Were rocky walls, by which I wept in vain!
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 caught
To upper air, where visions of God's will
In pictures to our quickened sense fulfil
His word. But this I saw:
A path I sought
Through wall of rock. No human fingers wrought
The 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 again
Were rocky walls, by which I wept in vain!