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3. Our philosophy advocates the oneness-unanimity of
Kaya (work),Vaacha (speech) and Manasa (thoughts).
How far does this poem support this philosophy?
Know about the author
Not to be republished
Mary Devenport O’Neill (1879 – 1967) was an Irish poet and
dramatist and a friend and colleague of W. B. Yeats, Russell, and
Austin Clarke. Mary Davenport was born in Loughrea, County Gal-
way, Ireland. She was a pupil of the Dominican Convent in Eccles
Street, Dublin. She studied teaching at the Metropolitan College
©KTBS
of Art (the present-day National College of Art, Dublin) from 1889-
1902. She published three verse plays, Bluebeard (1933), Cain
(1945) and Out of The Darkness (1947). Her collection, Prometheus
and Other Poems, was the first collection of poetry published by
an Irish poet, besides Yeats, which could be considered modernist.
She is one of a small number of known early 20th century Irish
modernist women poets.
Recite and enjoy

The Ladder to Success
- 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. 4
The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs. 8
The distant mountains, that uprear
Their frowning foreheads to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise. 12

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. 16

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