My Favourite Poem-5: 'The Ladder of St.Augstine by H.W.Longfellow '

We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.

.....

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

This is from Prof.Raghunathan's collection of favourite poems. This is my favourite too. For the full poem, click: http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1330.html
Longfellow's bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow
Poetry of Longfellow: http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow/longfellow_contents.htm Longfellow's Works in Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/l#a16