The field where I thought

Posted on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 5:14pm (PDT)

... at times I almost dream
I too have spent a life the sages' way,
And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perished in an arrogant self-reliance
an age ago; and in that act, a prayer
For one more chance went up so earnest, so
Instinct with better light let in by death,
That life was blotted out, not so completely
But scattered wrecks enough of it to remain
Dim memories. As now, when seems once more
The goal in sight again.

- Robert Browning, Paracelsus (1835)