Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/36

26 He sighed, and, sighing, kept the herbless way.

Beneath the gorge a stronger music rose,

And swept a noble anger from the strings,

The chord of glory smote,—loud rang the song:

"Ah far behind, ah far behind thee rise

The towered cities where the people toil,

Builders of life, as their dead fathers were;

And, as their fathers, still they seek the man

Heroic, framed for action, loving Christ;

The laurel withers while the tribune waits;

He fears, nor guesses how his thought shall burst,

The hope that gathers in ten thousand hearts,

The sun-like deed that blesses half the World!

Weak is his single might, but strong is man's,

And giant-like bears up from age to age

The starry load. O, let the burden fall!

Weep, O lost people, for the Leader lost,

Into the desert gone, the forfeiter!

His heart shall dry, his dead soul drags him down;

The plague shall prosper him who hath forgot

The cords of birth, of country, and of kind,

The bonds unforced and mystery of love,

The heaven-conjoinèd league, the state to be!

Friendless he goes, nor gives his brother aid;