For thinking evil and planning shame
The fire licked upward—at first a name,
Then star-devouring rebellious flame.
The dread light lingered high on the sky.
It grew and reddened—a voiceless cry.
It spread and touched us, we knew not why.
And a man sat staring out to the night,
Through tender silence, in warm lamplight,
Thinking always, "The fire at height!"
That fire blowing with growing roar
Saw us going, closing the door;
Saw us parted—who meet no more.
For thinking evil—all men drawn
Against a devil that dusked the dawn.
Each to his station. All men gone.
Some for the hilltop, fire to its brow,—
Death, long torture,—some for the plough,—
Some for the silence—that I know now.
IV
TRAVEL
You and I dreaming
Planned the far-away,
Cities and hedgerows,
Distant summer day,
When, the sun sinking,—
But oh, a distant sun!—
We would be thinking,
"Think what we have done!"
You and I whispering
Held the isles in fee
By a chain of grasses,
By your smile to me,
Visioning some clime—
But long years between—
When we should say, sometime,
"Think what we have seen!"