What do you think of this?

I first heard this poem from and episode of The X Files called “The Field Where I Died” where ‘Mulder’ reads it at the beginning. It has stuck in my head ever since I find it captivating and moving and wanted to know have you ever heard of it before what you think of it?


"At times I almost dream
I, too, have spent a life the sages' way,
And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perished in an arrogant self-reliance
Ages ago; and in that act, a prayer
For one more chance went up so earnest, so
Instinct with better light let in by death,
That life was blotted out-not so completely
But scattered wrecks enough of it remain,
Dim memories, as now, when once more seems
The goal in sight again..."
--"Paracelsus," Robert Browning