Ecstasy of Contemplation (second poem)

IN an act of daring love,
And not of hope abandoned,
I mounted higher and higher,
So that I came in sight of the prey.

That I might come in sight
Of that prey divine,
I was forced to fly so high
As to be lost to sight ;
Yet in that act supreme
I grew weaker in my flight,
But my love was still so strong
That I came in sight of the prey.
When I ascended higher
My sight grew faint and dim,
And my greatest conquest
Was in the darkness made ;
But as my love was strong
Blindly forth I leapt,
I mounted higher and higher,
So that I came in sight of the prey.

In a way most strange
I made a thousand flights in one,
For the hope that is from heaven,
What it hopes, attains ;
This was my only hope
And my hope was not in vain,
For I mounted higher and higher,
So that I came in sight of the prey.
But the nearer I drew
In this act sublime,
The more lowly, base, and vile,
And humiliated I grew,
I said, none can reach it ;
And abasing myself more and more ;
I mounted higher and higher,
So that I came in sight of the prey.