UNCALLED

As one, who, journeying westward with the sun,

Beholds at length from the up-towering hills,

Far off, a land unspeakable beauty fills,

Circean peaks and vales of Avalon:

And, sinking weary, watches, one by one,

The big seas beat between; and knows it skills

No more to try; that now, as Heaven wills,

This is the helpless end, that all is done:

So‘ tis with him, whom long a vision led

In quest of Beauty, and who finds at last

She lies beyond his effort. All the waves

Of all the world between them: While the dead,

The myriad dead, who people all the Past

With failure, hail him from forgotten graves.