Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/145

And all my rapture was a long farewell,
Flight following flight of sweet creations gone;
And, last, Love left my side without a guard.
Mirage! Mirage!" he sighed; "look, where it pales!"
And, in an instant, bare the wide sands rolled;
And faintness came upon him, like a cloud,
A momentary shadow; nigh, the West
Broke into little hillocks, as he passed,
And quickly grew, like surges of the sea,
To crests and valleys, hollows of the wind,
Drifted and ridged, as is the driven snow,
With fret and furrow; and he rose amidst
White, mobile mounds, carved by the inconstant breeeze
Unheeded, sculptured like the living hills,—
Wild beauty: and his heart grew prescient,
Ere he beheld him, of a comrade there,
Who moved toward him from the sinking sun.
The loveliness of youth was in his limbs,
And on the Roamer turned his friendly eyes
Love-lit; a round shield dangled on his arm;
By following I lead was its device;
His mien was courtly as of long-past time.
"Chrestoval was I christened at the font,"

He said, "the page of Christ and soldier, vowed