Explore "Doors of Daring (Songs for America)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The mountains that inclose 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!"
The bars of life 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 boldly try; / You never can begin to live / Until you dare to die.