Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/108

70 And Rustum to the Persian front advanced;

And Sohrab armed in Haman's tent, and came.

And as a-field the reapers cut a swath

Down through the middle of a rich man's corn,

And on each side are squares of standing corn,

And in the midst a stubble short and bare,—

So on each side were squares of men, with spears

Bristling, and in the midst the open sand.

And Rustum came upon the sand, and cast

His eyes toward the Tartar tents, and saw

Sohrab come forth, and eyed him as he came.

As some rich woman, on a winter's morn,

Eyes through her silken curtains the poor drudge

Who with numb blackened fingers makes her fire,—

At cock-crow, on a starlit winter's morn,

When the frost flowers the whitened window-panes,—

And wonders how she lives, and what the thoughts

Of that poor drudge may be; so Rustum eyed

The unknown adventurous youth, who from afar

Came seeking Rustum, and defying forth

All the most valiant chiefs; long he perused

His spirited air, and wondered who he was.

For very young he seemed, tenderly reared;

Like some young cypress, tall and dark and straight,

Which in a queen's secluded garden throws

Its slight dark shadow on the moonlit turf,

By midnight, to a bubbling fountain's sound,—

So slender Sohrab seemed, so softly reared.

And a deep pity entered Rustum's soul

As he beheld him coming; and he stood,

And beckoned to him with his hand, and said,—

"O thou young man, the air of heaven is soft,

And warm, and pleasant; but the grave is cold!

Heaven's air is better than the cold dead grave.