Did you ever see an alligator Come up to the air from the mud, Staring blindly under the full glare of noon? Have you seen the stabled horses at night Tremble and start back at the sight of a lantern? Have you ever walked in darkness When an unknown door was open before you And you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candles Of delicate wax? Have you walked with the wind in your ears And the sunlight about you And found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor? Out of the mud many times, Before many doors of light Through many fields of splendor, Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters Like new-fallen snow, Will you go through earth, O strong of soul, And through unnumbered heavens To the final flame!