IV

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, 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: The 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; Those 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, I 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 borne

Away, 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; But I, what do I here?