Page:Collected poems vol 1 de la mare.djvu/165

 And the last gold beam across the green world
 * Faltered and failed, as he

Remembered his solitude and the dark night's
 * Inhospitality.

And he looked upon the Witch with eyes of sorrow
 * In the darkening of the day;

And turned him aside into oblivion;
 * And the voices died away. . ..

And the Witch stepped down from her casement:
 * In the hush of night he heard

The calling and wailing in dewy thicket
 * Of bird to hidden bird.

And gloom stole all her burning crimson,
 * Remote and faint in space

As stars in gathering shadow of the evening
 * Seemed now her phantom face.

And one night's rest shall be a myriad,
 * Midst dreams that come and go;

Till heedless fate, unmoved by weakness, bring him
 * This same strange by-way through:

To the beauty of earth that fades in ashes,
 * The lips of welcome, and the eyes

More beauteous than the feeble shine of Hesper
 * Lone in the lightening skies: