Page:Poems by Frances Fuller Victor.djvu/14

 THE POST-BOY'S SONG.

The night is wild, and the road is long,

The scudding clouds fly fast,

The swift wind sings a dreary song

And the trees creak in the blast;

The moon is down in the tossing sea,

The stars shed not a ray,

The lightning flashes frightfully,

But I must on my way.

Like a shuttle thrown by the hand of fate

Forward and back I go

Bearing a thread to the desolate

To darken his web of woe,

A brighter thread to the glad of heart,

And a mingled one for all,

Yet the dark and light I cannot part,

Nor alter their hues at all.

Full many a hundred times have I

Gone o'er it in the dark,

'Till my faithful steeds can well descry

Each long familiar mark,

Withal should peril come tonight

God have us in his care,

For all alone, and without light

The boldest well beware.

8