“O that our souls could scale a height like this,
A mighty mountain swept o'er by the bleak
Keen winds of heaven”

—  Robinson Jeffers

A Hill-Top View (1904); This is one of his earliest poems, printed in the Aurora, a student publication of Occidental College.
Context: O that our souls could scale a height like this,
A mighty mountain swept o'er by the bleak
Keen winds of heaven; and, standing on that peak
Above the blinding clouds of prejudice,
Would we could see all truly as it is;
The calm eternal truth would keep us meek.

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Robinson Jeffers photo
Robinson Jeffers59
American poet 1887–1962

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