Mandragora/The Horizon
- THE HORIZON
PALE trees on the horizon grow,
Pale, faint and dim and grey —
Can they be real trees? They flow
Into the mist away.
Between us the valleys are green and wide,
But what is beyond on the other side?
Beyond I see a wooden pier,
Stretching into a shadowy lake.
And a sudden cry of wild-fowl I hear
As over the reeds their flight they take.
Over the reeds and far away
Beyond the trees, dim, pale and grey;
A wooden pier — a shadowy pond.
But what is beyond? What is beyond?
Beyond there is a long, long road.
Bordered by ditches dark and wide.
Where a wayfarer with a heavy load
Talks to the silence at his side.
Talks to the silence and talks to the trees.
But what is beyond, beyond all these?
Beyond is a house with a ruined wall,
Where the long road enters an ancient wood.
And its rafters rot and sink and fall,
And nothing disturbs its solitude,
Only a heron, high up in the sky,
Cries with a melancholy cry;
Cries to the house, to the road and the trees,
Cries to the wayfarer passing these;
Between us the valleys are green and wide,
But what is beyond — on the other side?
Pale trees on the horizon grow,
Pale, faint and dim and grey.
Can they be real trees? They flow
Into the mist away!
Beyond and beyond, and further still,
Beyond, till we cross the world's last hill —
So it goes. So it always will!
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1963, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 60 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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