A Hymn of Aspiration

We see this life of Man
     All crossed with joy and woe,
And ever seek beyond our span
     A better than we know
So wheels the darkest star
     To find its central sun;
So gleams in firmaments afar
     The eternal day begun.

O mystic Dawn, unseen
     By dwellers in the vale
On peaks of daring thought serene,
     Thy golden light we hail!
Higher, and ever higher,
     Its rosy palms invite,
Where souls that ceased not to aspire,
     Stand robed in dazzling white.

A voice comes down the blue
     From every kindling peak,
That calls us nobler work to do,
     And nobler goals to seek;
To climb the loftier zones
     Where kinds of earnest thought
Reign, and still wrestle for new thrones,
     With purer gold inwrought.

Forsaking ever lire
     To prizes cheaplier won,
The eternal more of true and pure
     Shall light us on and on,
Till over summits dim
     In purple glooms afar,
We see through deepening glory swim
     Our victory’s morning star!