Page:Songs and Sonnets (1906).djvu/125



by the golden glamor of the West,
 * He crossed the pathless plains and scaled the bold
 * Titanic forms that, rising fold on fold,

Touch heaven's blue; and, toiling, strove to wrest From Nature's rugged and reluctant breast
 * The treasure she had hidden there of old—
 * The treasure of her hoarded yellow gold—

Seductive hope of many a hapless quest!

For this he left all other hopes behind,
 * And gave his manhood's prime and powers away,

Content to be forgotten of his kind—
 * Yet all the while within himself there lay

The unregarded treasure of the mind,
 * Deep-buried, priceless, wasting day by day.