‘Unto what pinnacles of desperate heights . . .’
Unto what pinnacles of desperate heights
Do good men climb to seize their good!
What abnegation to all mortal joys,
What vast abstraction from the world is theirs!
O what insane abuses, desperate pangs,
Annihilations of the Self, soul-suicides,
They wreak upon themselves to purchase---God!
A God to guide through these poor temporal days
Their comings, goings, workings of the heart,
Obsess, indeed, their natures utterly;
Meanwhile preparing, as in recompense,
Mansions celestial for their timeless bliss.
And to what end this Holiness; this God
That arrogates their intellect and soul?
To none! Their offered lives are not so grand,
So active, or so sweet as many a one's
That is undedicate, being reason-swayed;
And their sole mission is to drag, entice
And push mankind to those same cloudy crags
Where they first breathed the madness-giving air
That made them feel as angels, that are less than men.
| Title |
‘Unto what pinnacles of desperate heights . . .’
|
|---|---|
| Author |
Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918)
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| Content | |
| Copyright |
The Estate of Wilfred Owen. The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen edited by Jon Stallworthy first published by Chatto & Windus, 1983. Preliminaries, introductory, editorial matter, manuscripts and fragments omitted.
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| Digital repository | |
| First line |
Unto what pinnacles of desperate heights
|
Collection
Citation
“‘Unto what pinnacles of desperate heights . . .’,” by Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918). The Estate of Wilfred Owen. The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen edited by Jon Stallworthy first published by Chatto & Windus, 1983. Preliminaries, introductory, editorial matter, manuscripts and fragments omitted. via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed April 27, 2024, http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/items/show/10520.
Permitted Use
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