Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Climbing to Rest
By Lucy Larcom (18261893)S
The bird soars upward to his nest;
The young leaf on the tree-top high
Cradles itself within the sky.
Return in clouds, the hills to crown;
The plant arises from her root,
To rock aloft her flower and fruit.
The great horizons stretch away!
The very cliffs that wall me round
Are ladders unto higher ground.
I toil, but I must also climb.
What soul was ever quite at ease
Shut in by earthly boundaries?
Life that can lift me from my own:
A loftier level must be won,
A mightier strength to lean upon.
The breeze invites, the stars befriend:
All things are beckoning toward the Best:
I climb to thee, my God, for rest!