 | Poems at Home and Abroad |  |
108
A Shadow on Scafell
[_]
In Memoriam Prof. A. Milne Marshall, of Owens College, Manchester, who died by a fall from the crags above Lord's Rake on Scafell, 31st December, 1893.
Clear shines the heaven above our New Year's Day,
The sunlight gleams by Wastdale's desolate shore
And streams o'er grassy Gavel, and the floor
Of Derwentwater glitters gold and gay.
But one great shadow lingering seems to stay
Dark on Scafell, beneath its summit hoar—
Shadow more deep than gloomy Mickledore,
Shadow no New Year's sun can charm away.
The sunlight gleams by Wastdale's desolate shore
And streams o'er grassy Gavel, and the floor
Of Derwentwater glitters gold and gay.
But one great shadow lingering seems to stay
Dark on Scafell, beneath its summit hoar—
Shadow more deep than gloomy Mickledore,
Shadow no New Year's sun can charm away.
For he who climbed so many crags of fear,
Sounded such deeps, such heights of knowledge won,
But never over-passed our heights of love,
Has vanished in a moment—gone to prove
Those peaks beyond our seeing—and we hear
Far up the cleft a brave voice: ‘Follow on.’
Sounded such deeps, such heights of knowledge won,
But never over-passed our heights of love,
Has vanished in a moment—gone to prove
Those peaks beyond our seeing—and we hear
Far up the cleft a brave voice: ‘Follow on.’
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