Sonnet Written upon the Top of Ben Nevis

Read me a lesson, Muse, and speak it loud

  Upon the top of Nevis, blind in mist!

I look into the chasms, and a shroud

  Vapourous doth hide them,--just so much I wist

Mankind do know of hell; I look o'erhead,

  And there is sullen mist,--even so much

Mankind can tell of heaven; mist is spread

  Before the earth, beneath me,--even such,

Even so vague is man's sight of himself!

  Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet,--

Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,

  I tread on them,--that all my eye doth meet

Is mist and crag, not only on this height,

But in the world of thought and mental might!