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, 5The 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, 10The 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.15As 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;20Sharp 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, 25As 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 30For 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 35And 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: 40Yet 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; 45Enormous 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; 50No 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, 55A 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.60As 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; 65O 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, 70As 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,75Between 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 80And piteous matched with that accursed wild;A large black sign was on her breast that bowed, A broad black band ran down her snow-white shroud;That lamp she held was her own burning heart, Whose blood-drops trickled step by step apart: 85The mystery was clear;
Mad rage had swallowed fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was, As I came through the desert: By the sea She knelt and bent above that senseless me; 90Those lamp-drops fell upon my white brow there, She tried to cleanse them with her tears and hair;She murmured words of pity, love, and woe, Shee heeded not the level rushing flow:
And mad with rage and fear, 95I stood stonebound so near.
As I came through the desert thus it was, As I came through the desert: When the tide Swept up to her there kneeling by my side, She clasped that corpse-like me, and they were borne100Away, and this vile me was left forlorn;
I know the whole sea cannot quench that heart, Or cleanse that brow, or wash those two apart:
They love; their doom is drear, Yet they nor hope nor fear; 105But I, what do I here?
