THE DREAD OF HEIGHT
By Francis Thompson
“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say;We see: your sin remaineth.”—John ix. 41
“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say;We see: your sin remaineth.”—John ix. 41
“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say;We see: your sin remaineth.”—John ix. 41
“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say;
We see: your sin remaineth.”—John ix. 41
Not the Circean wineMost perilous is for pain:Grapes of the heaven’s star-loaden vine,Whereto the lofty-placedThoughts of fair souls attain,Tempt with a more retributive delight,And do disrelish all life’s sober taste.’Tis to have drunk too wellThe drink that is divine,Maketh the kind earth waste,And breath intolerable.Ah, me!How shall my mouth content it with mortality?Lo, secret music, sweetest music,From distances of distance drifting its lone flight,Down the arcane where Night would perish in night,Like a god’s loosened locks slips undulously:Music that is too grievous of the heightFor safe and low delight,Too infiniteFor bounded hearts which yet would girth the sea!So let it be,Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small:So let it be,O music, music, though you wake in meNo joy, no joy at all;Although you only wakeUttermost sadness, measure of delight,Which else I could not credit to the height,Did I not know,Did I not know,That ill is statured to its opposite;And even of sadness so,Of utter sadness, makeOf extreme sad a rod to meteThe incredible excess of unsensed sweet,And mystic wall of strange felicity.So let it be,Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small,And bitter meatThe food of Gods for men to eat;Yea, John ate daintier, and did treadLess ways of heat,Than whom to their wind-carpetedHigh banquet hall,And golden love-feasts, the fair stars entreat.But ah! withal,Some hold, some stay,O difficult joy, I pray,Some arms of thine,Not only, only arms of mine!Lest like a weary girl I fallFrom clasping love so high,And lacking thus thine arms, then mayMost hapless ITurn utterly to love of basest rate;For low they fall whose fall is from the sky.Yea, who me shall secureBut I, of height grown desperate,Surcease my wing, and my lost fateBe dashed from pureTo broken writhings in the shameful slime:Lower than man, for I dreamed higher,Thrust down, by how much I aspire,And damned with drink of immortality?For such things be,Yea, and the lowest reach of reeky HellIs but made possibleBy foreta’en breath of Heaven’s austerest clime.These tidings from the vast to bringNeedeth not doctor nor divine,Too well, too wellMy flesh doth know the heart-perturbing thing;That dread theology aloneIs mine,Most native and my own;And ever with victorious toilWhen I have madeOf the delfic peaks dim escalade,My soul with anguish and recoilDoth like a city in an earthquake rock,As at my feet the abyss is cloven then,With deeper menace than for other men,Of my potential cousinship with mire;That all my conquered skies do grow a hollow mock,My fearful powers retire,No longer strong,Reversing the shook banners of their song.Ah, for a heart less native to high Heaven,A hooded eye, for jesses and restraint,Or for a will accipitrine to pursue!—The veil of tutelar flesh to simple livers given,Or those brave-fledging fervours of the Saint,Whose heavenly falcon-craft doth never taint,Nor they in sickest time their ample virtue mew.
Not the Circean wineMost perilous is for pain:Grapes of the heaven’s star-loaden vine,Whereto the lofty-placedThoughts of fair souls attain,Tempt with a more retributive delight,And do disrelish all life’s sober taste.’Tis to have drunk too wellThe drink that is divine,Maketh the kind earth waste,And breath intolerable.Ah, me!How shall my mouth content it with mortality?Lo, secret music, sweetest music,From distances of distance drifting its lone flight,Down the arcane where Night would perish in night,Like a god’s loosened locks slips undulously:Music that is too grievous of the heightFor safe and low delight,Too infiniteFor bounded hearts which yet would girth the sea!So let it be,Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small:So let it be,O music, music, though you wake in meNo joy, no joy at all;Although you only wakeUttermost sadness, measure of delight,Which else I could not credit to the height,Did I not know,Did I not know,That ill is statured to its opposite;And even of sadness so,Of utter sadness, makeOf extreme sad a rod to meteThe incredible excess of unsensed sweet,And mystic wall of strange felicity.So let it be,Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small,And bitter meatThe food of Gods for men to eat;Yea, John ate daintier, and did treadLess ways of heat,Than whom to their wind-carpetedHigh banquet hall,And golden love-feasts, the fair stars entreat.But ah! withal,Some hold, some stay,O difficult joy, I pray,Some arms of thine,Not only, only arms of mine!Lest like a weary girl I fallFrom clasping love so high,And lacking thus thine arms, then mayMost hapless ITurn utterly to love of basest rate;For low they fall whose fall is from the sky.Yea, who me shall secureBut I, of height grown desperate,Surcease my wing, and my lost fateBe dashed from pureTo broken writhings in the shameful slime:Lower than man, for I dreamed higher,Thrust down, by how much I aspire,And damned with drink of immortality?For such things be,Yea, and the lowest reach of reeky HellIs but made possibleBy foreta’en breath of Heaven’s austerest clime.These tidings from the vast to bringNeedeth not doctor nor divine,Too well, too wellMy flesh doth know the heart-perturbing thing;That dread theology aloneIs mine,Most native and my own;And ever with victorious toilWhen I have madeOf the delfic peaks dim escalade,My soul with anguish and recoilDoth like a city in an earthquake rock,As at my feet the abyss is cloven then,With deeper menace than for other men,Of my potential cousinship with mire;That all my conquered skies do grow a hollow mock,My fearful powers retire,No longer strong,Reversing the shook banners of their song.Ah, for a heart less native to high Heaven,A hooded eye, for jesses and restraint,Or for a will accipitrine to pursue!—The veil of tutelar flesh to simple livers given,Or those brave-fledging fervours of the Saint,Whose heavenly falcon-craft doth never taint,Nor they in sickest time their ample virtue mew.
Not the Circean wineMost perilous is for pain:Grapes of the heaven’s star-loaden vine,Whereto the lofty-placedThoughts of fair souls attain,Tempt with a more retributive delight,And do disrelish all life’s sober taste.
Not the Circean wine
Most perilous is for pain:
Grapes of the heaven’s star-loaden vine,
Whereto the lofty-placed
Thoughts of fair souls attain,
Tempt with a more retributive delight,
And do disrelish all life’s sober taste.
’Tis to have drunk too wellThe drink that is divine,Maketh the kind earth waste,And breath intolerable.
’Tis to have drunk too well
The drink that is divine,
Maketh the kind earth waste,
And breath intolerable.
Ah, me!How shall my mouth content it with mortality?Lo, secret music, sweetest music,From distances of distance drifting its lone flight,Down the arcane where Night would perish in night,Like a god’s loosened locks slips undulously:Music that is too grievous of the heightFor safe and low delight,Too infiniteFor bounded hearts which yet would girth the sea!So let it be,Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small:So let it be,O music, music, though you wake in meNo joy, no joy at all;Although you only wakeUttermost sadness, measure of delight,Which else I could not credit to the height,Did I not know,Did I not know,That ill is statured to its opposite;And even of sadness so,Of utter sadness, makeOf extreme sad a rod to meteThe incredible excess of unsensed sweet,And mystic wall of strange felicity.So let it be,Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small,And bitter meatThe food of Gods for men to eat;Yea, John ate daintier, and did treadLess ways of heat,Than whom to their wind-carpetedHigh banquet hall,And golden love-feasts, the fair stars entreat.
Ah, me!
How shall my mouth content it with mortality?
Lo, secret music, sweetest music,
From distances of distance drifting its lone flight,
Down the arcane where Night would perish in night,
Like a god’s loosened locks slips undulously:
Music that is too grievous of the height
For safe and low delight,
Too infinite
For bounded hearts which yet would girth the sea!
So let it be,
Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small:
So let it be,
O music, music, though you wake in me
No joy, no joy at all;
Although you only wake
Uttermost sadness, measure of delight,
Which else I could not credit to the height,
Did I not know,
Did I not know,
That ill is statured to its opposite;
And even of sadness so,
Of utter sadness, make
Of extreme sad a rod to mete
The incredible excess of unsensed sweet,
And mystic wall of strange felicity.
So let it be,
Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small,
And bitter meat
The food of Gods for men to eat;
Yea, John ate daintier, and did tread
Less ways of heat,
Than whom to their wind-carpeted
High banquet hall,
And golden love-feasts, the fair stars entreat.
But ah! withal,Some hold, some stay,O difficult joy, I pray,Some arms of thine,Not only, only arms of mine!Lest like a weary girl I fallFrom clasping love so high,And lacking thus thine arms, then mayMost hapless ITurn utterly to love of basest rate;For low they fall whose fall is from the sky.
But ah! withal,
Some hold, some stay,
O difficult joy, I pray,
Some arms of thine,
Not only, only arms of mine!
Lest like a weary girl I fall
From clasping love so high,
And lacking thus thine arms, then may
Most hapless I
Turn utterly to love of basest rate;
For low they fall whose fall is from the sky.
Yea, who me shall secureBut I, of height grown desperate,Surcease my wing, and my lost fateBe dashed from pureTo broken writhings in the shameful slime:Lower than man, for I dreamed higher,Thrust down, by how much I aspire,And damned with drink of immortality?For such things be,Yea, and the lowest reach of reeky HellIs but made possibleBy foreta’en breath of Heaven’s austerest clime.
Yea, who me shall secure
But I, of height grown desperate,
Surcease my wing, and my lost fate
Be dashed from pure
To broken writhings in the shameful slime:
Lower than man, for I dreamed higher,
Thrust down, by how much I aspire,
And damned with drink of immortality?
For such things be,
Yea, and the lowest reach of reeky Hell
Is but made possible
By foreta’en breath of Heaven’s austerest clime.
These tidings from the vast to bringNeedeth not doctor nor divine,Too well, too wellMy flesh doth know the heart-perturbing thing;That dread theology aloneIs mine,Most native and my own;And ever with victorious toilWhen I have madeOf the delfic peaks dim escalade,My soul with anguish and recoilDoth like a city in an earthquake rock,As at my feet the abyss is cloven then,With deeper menace than for other men,Of my potential cousinship with mire;That all my conquered skies do grow a hollow mock,My fearful powers retire,No longer strong,Reversing the shook banners of their song.
These tidings from the vast to bring
Needeth not doctor nor divine,
Too well, too well
My flesh doth know the heart-perturbing thing;
That dread theology alone
Is mine,
Most native and my own;
And ever with victorious toil
When I have made
Of the delfic peaks dim escalade,
My soul with anguish and recoil
Doth like a city in an earthquake rock,
As at my feet the abyss is cloven then,
With deeper menace than for other men,
Of my potential cousinship with mire;
That all my conquered skies do grow a hollow mock,
My fearful powers retire,
No longer strong,
Reversing the shook banners of their song.
Ah, for a heart less native to high Heaven,A hooded eye, for jesses and restraint,Or for a will accipitrine to pursue!—The veil of tutelar flesh to simple livers given,Or those brave-fledging fervours of the Saint,Whose heavenly falcon-craft doth never taint,Nor they in sickest time their ample virtue mew.
Ah, for a heart less native to high Heaven,
A hooded eye, for jesses and restraint,
Or for a will accipitrine to pursue!—
The veil of tutelar flesh to simple livers given,
Or those brave-fledging fervours of the Saint,
Whose heavenly falcon-craft doth never taint,
Nor they in sickest time their ample virtue mew.