Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/81

 When, strayed from the shepherd, it staggers alone By tracks which the mountain streams shake with their thunder, Where death seems to gape from each boulder and stone.

I turned to the murmur: the clouds swept asunder And wheeled like white sea-gulls around the white moon; And the moon, like a white maid, looked down in mute wonder

On a boy whose wan eyelids were closed as in swoon. Half nude on the ground he lay, wasted and chilly, And torn as with thorns and sharp brambles of June;

His hair, like a flame which at twilight burns stilly, In a halo of light round his temples was blown, And his tears fell like rain on a storm-stricken lily