Sonnets LXXXI: The Two Lots

Two pilgrims on a pleasant road set forth:
Green was the herbage by their journey-side;
Through deep and shrubby dells their way they plied,
Fenced from the biting of the ruthless north;
At length said one, 'I would that we were high
On yonder hill, whence we might look out wide
On towns and plains, even to the distant tide
Of Ocean, bordered by the vaulting sky.'
Thus parted they: — one by the alder' d brook
Wandered in easeful calm; the other wound
Up the rock-path, with many a backward look
Tracing his progress, till no envious bound
Forbade his sight, and from the mountain-head
Earth, sea, and sky, in mighty prospect spread.