Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/141

Rh To keep his own life safe, and see the sun.

There to his hall the gods brought Balder home,

And each bespake him as he laid him down,—

"Would that ourselves, O Balder, we were borne

Home to our halls, with torchlight, by our kin,

So thou might'st live, and still delight the gods!"

They spake, and each went home to his own house.

But there was one, the first of all the gods

For speed, and Hermod was his name in heaven;

Most fleet he was, but now he went the last,

Heavy in heart for Balder, to his house

Which he in Asgard built him, there to dwell,

Against the harbor, by the city-wall.

Him the blind Hoder met, as he came up

From the sea cityward, and knew his step;

Nor yet could Hermod see his brother's face,

For it grew dark; but Hoder touched his arm.

And as a spray of honeysuckle-flowers

Brushes across a tired traveller's face

Who shuffles through the deep dew-moistened dust,

On a May evening, in the darkened lanes,

And starts him, that he thinks a ghost went by,—

So Hoder brushed by Hermod's side, and said,—

"Take Sleipner, Hermod, and set forth with dawn

To Hela's kingdom, to ask Balder back;

And they shall be thy guides, who have the power."

He spake, and brushed soft by, and disappeared.

And Hermod gazed into the night, and said,—

"Who is it utters through the dark his hest

So quickly, and will wait for no reply?

The voice was like the unhappy Hoder's voice.

Howbeit I will see, and do his hest;

For there rang note divine in that command."

So speaking, the fleet-footed Hermod came