Page:Poems by Frances Fuller Victor.djvu/23

 After which the celestial closes

Are barred to us; if in despite

Of such high favor, arrogant

We blindly choose to bide our time,

Rejecting Heaven's, and ignorant

What we have spurned, attempt to climb

To heavenly places at our will,

Finding no path thereto but one,

Nemesis-guarded, where atone

To heaven, all such as hopeful still,

Press toward the mount, yet find it strewn

With corpses, perished by the way,

Of those who Fate did importune

Too rashly, or her will gainsay;

If I have been thrust out from heaven

This night, for insolent disdain

Of putting a young god in pain,

How shall I hope to be forgiven?

Yet let me not be judged as one

Who mocks at any high behest,

My fault being that I kept the throne

Of a Jove vacant in my breast,

And when Apollo claimed the place

I was too loyal to my Jove,

Unmindful the how the masks of love

Transfigure all things to our face.

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