Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: Xxix

A glorious triumph. On that day of days When, standing on the summit's utmost edge Of my first mountain--top, I viewed the maze Which I had travelled upwards, ledge on ledge, And all that wilderness of rock and plain Rolled at my feet, and, when with heel fast set On Nature's neck, I knew the giant slain, My thrall, my prisoner, on the parapet, I was transfigured. Slowly in me rose The throb of courage as a sense new born. ``Even Man,'' I cried, ``Man's self, my foe of foes, The phantom of my fears, shall feel my scorn Yet in a nobler war.'' And trembling then I seemed to stand, I too, a man with men.