(Halted around the fire by night, after moon-set, they sing this beneath the trees.)
WHAT light of unremembered skies | |
| Hast thou relumed within our eyes, | |
| Thou whom we seek, whom we shall find?… | |
| A certain odour on the wind, | |
| Thy hidden face beyond the west, | 5 |
| These things have called us; on a quest | |
| Older than any road we trod, | |
| More endless than desire.… | |
| Far God, | |
| Sigh with thy cruel voice, that fills | 10 |
| The soul with longing for dim hills | |
| And faint horizons! For there come | |
| Grey moments of the antient dumb | |
| Sickness of travel, when no song | |
| Can cheer us; but the way seems long; | 15 |
| And one remembers.… | |
| Ah! the beat | |
| Of weary unreturning feet, | |
| And songs of pilgrims unreturning!… | |
| The fires we left are always burning | 20 |
| On the old shrines of home. Our kin | |
| Have built them temples, and therein | |
| Pray to the Gods we know; and dwell | |
| In little houses lovable, | |
| Being happy (we remember how!) | 25 |
| And peaceful even to death.… | |
| O Thou, | |
| God of all long desirous roaming, | |
| Our hearts are sick of fruitless homing, | |
| And crying after lost desire. | 30 |
| Hearten us onward! as with fire | |
| Consuming dreams of other bliss. | |
| The best Thou givest, giving this | |
| Sufficient thing—to travel still | |
| Over the plain, beyond the hill, | 35 |
| Unhesitating through the shade, | |
| Amid the silence unafraid, | |
| Till, at some sudden turn, one sees | |
| Against the black and muttering trees | |
| Thine altar, wonderfully white, | 40 |
| Among the Forests of the Night. | |
