C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Louise Chandler Moulton (1835–1908)

FROM some dim height of being, undescried,

Shall I look back and trace the weary way

By which my feet are journeying to-day,—

The toilsome path that climbs the mountain-side,

Or leads into the valley sun-denied,

Where, through the darkness, hapless wanderers stray,

Unblessed, uncheered, ungladdened by a ray

Of certitude their errant steps to guide?

Shall I look back, and see the great things small;

The toilsome path, God’s training for my feet,

The pains that never had been worth my tears?

Will some great light of rapture, bathing all,

Make bygone woe seem joy; past bitter, sweet?

Shall I look back and wonder at my fears?