| |
| NO life in earth, or air, or sky; | |
| The sunbeams, broken silently, | |
| On the bared rocks around me lie,— | |
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| Cold rocks with half-warmed lichens scarred, | |
| And scales of moss; and scarce a yard | 5 |
| Away, one long strip, yellow-barred. | |
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| Lost in a cleft! T is but a stride | |
| To reach it, thrust its roots aside, | |
| And lift it on thy stick astride! | |
| |
| Yet stay! That moment is thy grace! | 10 |
| For round thee, thrilling air and space, | |
| A chattering terror fills the place! | |
| |
| A sound as of dry bones that stir | |
| In the Dead Valley! By yon fir | |
| The locust stops its noonday whir! | 15 |
| |
| The wild bird hears; smote with the sound, | |
| As if by bullet brought to ground, | |
| On broken wing, dips, wheeling round! | |
| |
| The hare, transfixed, with trembling lip, | |
| Halts, breathless, on pulsating hip, | 20 |
| And palsied tread, and heels that slip. | |
| |
| Enough, old friend!—’t is thou. Forget | |
| My heedless foot, nor longer fret | |
| The peace with thy grim castanet! | |
| |
| I know thee! Yes! Thou mayst forego | 25 |
| That lifted crest; the measured blow | |
| Beyond which thy pride scorns to go, | |
| |
| Or yet retract! For me no spell | |
| Lights those slit orbs, where, some think, dwell | |
| Machicolated fires of hell! | 30 |
| |
| I only know thee humble, bold, | |
| Haughty, with miseries untold, | |
| And the old Curse that left thee cold, | |
| |
| And drove thee ever to the sun, | |
| On blistering rocks; nor made thee shun | 35 |
| Our cabin’s hearth, when day was done, | |
| |
| And the spent ashes warmed thee best; | |
| We knew thee,—silent, joyless guest | |
| Of our rude ingle. E’en thy quest | |
| |
| Of the rare milk-bowl seemed to be | 40 |
| Naught but a brother’s poverty | |
| And Spartan taste that kept thee free | |
| |
| From lust and rapine. Thou! whose fame | |
| Searches the grass with tongue of flame, | |
| Making all creatures seem thy game; | 45 |
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| When the whole woods before thee run, | |
| Asked but—when all was said and done— | |
| To lie, untrodden, in the sun! | |
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