LITMIR.BIZ

        He stood alone within the spacious square

          Declaiming from the central grassy mound,

        With head uncovered and with streaming hair,

          As if large multitudes were gathered round:

        A stalwart shape, the gestures full of might,

        The glances burning with unnatural light:—

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: All was black,

        In heaven no single star, on earth no track;

        A brooding hush without a stir or note,

        The air so thick it clotted in my throat;

        And thus for hours; then some enormous things

        Swooped past with savage cries and clanking wings:

          But I strode on austere;

          No hope could have no fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: Eyes of fire

        Glared at me throbbing with a starved desire;

        The hoarse and heavy and carnivorous breath

        Was hot upon me from deep jaws of death;

        Sharp claws, swift talons, fleshless fingers cold

        Plucked at me from the bushes, tried to hold:

          But I strode on austere;

          No hope could have no fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: Lo you, there,

        That hillock burning with a brazen glare;

        Those myriad dusky flames with points a-glow

        Which writhed and hissed and darted to and fro;

        A Sabbath of the Serpents, heaped pell-mell

        For Devil's roll-call and some fete of Hell:

          Yet I strode on austere;

          No hope could have no fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: Meteors ran

        And crossed their javelins on the black sky-span;

        The zenith opened to a gulf of flame,

        The dreadful thunderbolts jarred earth's fixed frame;

        The ground all heaved in waves of fire that surged

        And weltered round me sole there unsubmerged:

          Yet I strode on austere;

          No hope could have no fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: Air once more,

        And I was close upon a wild sea-shore;

        Enormous cliffs arose on either hand,

        The deep tide thundered up a league-broad strand;

        White foambelts seethed there, wan spray swept and flew;

        The sky broke, moon and stars and clouds and blue:

          Yet I strode on austere;

          No hope could have no fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: On the left

        The sun arose and crowned a broad crag-cleft;

        There stopped and burned out black, except a rim,

        A bleeding eyeless socket, red and dim;

        Whereon the moon fell suddenly south-west,

        And stood above the right-hand cliffs at rest:

          Yet I strode on austere;

          No hope could have no fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: From the right

        A shape came slowly with a ruddy light;

        A woman with a red lamp in her hand,

        Bareheaded and barefooted on that strand;

        O desolation moving with such grace!

        O anguish with such beauty in thy face!

          I fell as on my bier,

          Hope travailed with such fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: I was twain,

        Two selves distinct that cannot join again;

        One stood apart and knew but could not stir,

        And watched the other stark in swoon and her;

        And she came on, and never turned aside,

        Between such sun and moon and roaring tide:

          And as she came more near

          My soul grew mad with fear.

        As I came through the desert thus it was,

        As I came through the desert: Hell is mild

        And piteous matched with that accursed wild;

        A large black sign was on her breast that bowed,