Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/31

 And through wide pastures shepherds woolly flocks; Though age by age, through discipline of toil, Man wring a richer harvest from the soil, And in the grim and still renewing fight Slays loathly worms and beasts of gruesome might By the close-knitted bondage of the clan, Which adding up the puny strength of man Makes thousands move with one electric thrill Of simultaneous, energetic will; Yet still behind the narrow borderland Where in security he seems to stand, His apprehensive life is compassed round By baffling mysteries he cannot sound, Where, big with terrors and calamities, The future like a foe in ambush lies: A muffled foe, that seems to watch and wait With the Medusa eyes of stony fate.— Great floods o'erwhelm and ruin his ripening grain, His boat is shattered by the hurricane,