Winter Landscape, Tien Shan

As in your dream, over the glittering gaudy ranges,
Your shadow fleeter, death or glory, than your fear,
Behold the origin and end of all romance,
The hero’s paradise where nothing changes,
And in the ragged rocks, the wind’s derisive cheer,
Perceive that failure here
Is final, no one gets another chance.

Cast to outer darkness, the wall beyond the wall,
The litter in a mad god’s private park,
These hundred names on whom all names depend,
Cotton-quilted children who had no chance at all;
The bones that braced a paper lantern mark
The rim of outer dark,
The sign in space that says This is the end.