WHAT is the desert? Thirst,
And very immolation’s loneliness!
Upon that land of death dry ridges press,
Like to sand-drifts on the tongue—
And the sequestered heart through fear will burst.
Armies have gone along,
Defeated, to oblivion among
The naught of those bare sands—
Banners and horses and bright-harnessed bands.
None hath beheld the banners wave and slip
Abyssward, and the horses, under whip
Of crazy dust, plunge down
With manes sand-tossed,
Beneath the plain they crossed,
Making athwart the breadth a little frown,
Gone in its very moment, like the smile
That followed, as the horsemen flashed awhile
Above the grave, and sank bright, and were gone.
O desert, full of plots,
On lapping water, of sleek palm-tree knots,
And isles in haunted channels; cruel earth,
Mirage of desolation, grace of dearth,
Many have died in anguish at the pain
Never to drink those lakes that gibe and wane!
“I thirst”—“My God, Thou hast forsaken Me!”
Parched, sinking in abysses mortally,
O Christ, and there is none to succour Thee,
Water of Life, perpetual Deity!
A LIGNO
THERE were trees that spring—
One on a little hill,
One in a small, green field.
One stood a leaf-stripped thing;
One had begun to fill
With leaves from shoots unsealed,
With purple flowers along the wood—
So those trees stood.
One bore up a Form
On the clean branches nailed,
Ineffable in peace:
One bent as if a storm
In its descent had trailed
Down the red blossom-fleece;
And where the boughs most sullen hung
A crisped form swung.
One the Tree of Life—
Both near Jerusalem—
And one of Death the Tree!
One bore a bitter strife;
A cry came from its stem:
“Thou hast forsaken Me!”
The other heard no sound at all,
Save a dumb fall.
Both were gibbet-trees—
From one was said, “Forgive!
They know not what they do.”
One rocked in purple breeze
Despair, that would not live,
Nor trust forgiveness:—no!
And from the wreathèd branches fell
A soul to Hell.
ONE REED
SHAKEN by winds to sigh, to song,
One reed amid the misty throng
That to a reed-bed, Christ, belong—
One reed among
Those who are reeds to every wind,
Now in Thy Presence, now declined: