Sonnet

Art thou already weary of the way?

Thou who hast yet but half the way gone o'er:

Get up, and lift thy burthen: lo, before

Thy feet the road goes stretching far away.

If thou already faint, who hast but come

Through half thy pilgrimage, with fellows gay,

Love, youth, and hope, under the rosy bloom

And temperate airs, of early breaking day;

Look yonder, how the heavens stoop and gloom,

There cease the trees to shade, the flowers to spring,

And the angels leave thee; what wilt thou become

Through yon drear stretch of dismal wandering,

Lonely and dark? I shall take courage, friend,

For comes not every step more near the end?