6. The Blind Man at the Fair

O TO be blind!

To know the darkness that I know.

The stir I hear is empty wind,

The people idly come and go.

The sun is black, tho’ warm and kind,

The horsemen ride, the streamers blow

Vainly in the fluky wind,

For all is darkness where I go.

The cattle bellow to their kind,

The mummers dance, the jugglers throw,

The thimble-rigger speaks his mind—

But all is darkness where I go.

I feel the touch of womankind,

Their dresses flow as white as snow;

But beauty is a withered rind

For all is darkness where I go.

Last night the moon of Lammas shined,

Rising high and setting low;

But light is nothing to the blind—

All, all is darkness where they go.

White roads I walk with vacant mind,

White cloud-shapes round me drifting slow,

White lilies waving in the wind—

And darkness everywhere I go.