Brand.
[After a pause.]
This was a church-goer, like the rest.
Mountain- or Dale-church, which is best?
Which wildest reel, which blindest grope,
Which furthest roam from home and hope:—
<g>Light-heart</g> who, crown'd with leafage gay,
Loves by the dizziest verge to play,—
<g>Faint-heart</g>, who marches slack and slow,
Because old Wont will have it so;—
<g>Wild-heart</g>, who, borne on lawless wings,
Sees fairness in the foulest things?
War front and rear, war high and low,
With this fell triple-banded foe!
I see my Call! It gleams ahead
Like sunshine through a loop-hole shed!
I know my task; these demons slain,
The sick Earth shall grow sound again;—
Once let them to the grave be given,
The fever-fumes of Earth shall fly!
Up, Soul, array thee! Sword from thigh!
To battle for the heirs of Heaven!
[He descends to the hamlet.
