The Mountaineer 
DOORS OF DARING. 
HENRY VAN DYKE. 
The mountains that enfold the vale 
With walls of granite, steep and high, 
Invite the fearless foot to scale 
Their stairway toward the sky. 
The restless, deep, dividing sea 
That flows and foams from shore to shore, 
Calls to its sunburned chivalry 
*““Push out, set sail, explore!” 
And all the bars at which we fret, 
That seem to prison and control, 
Are but the doors of daring, set 
Ajar before the soul. 
Say not, “Too poor,” but freely give. 
Sigh not, ““Too weak,” but bodly trv. 
You never can begin to live 
Until vou dare to die. 
—From ““The White Bees and Other Poems.”’ 
Copyright by Charles Seribner’s Sons. 
