Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/16

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6
THE ROAMER

New music, wild and sweet, blown through the world,
So rose my idyl; all the valley-side
Was hushed, and clinging to my lips the reed
Felt the first tremor of immortal breath;
And like an angel singing in his birth,
Aloft the lone and mounting melody
Moved, darkling, to the bosom of the dawn.
Then was I 'ware of him I loved unseen,
An image and an unapparent form,
A little way, a little way, before.
Out of the valley, up the slopes I sprang
Toward heaven's reach; but him I could not see,
Whom my heart hungered after, following,
Till, from far heights, the pale and streaming East
Forth from its bosom gave the golden flood
To the bare rock of beauty; down the pass
The shadows rolled away; and pine and cliff
Dropped lustre, and the smooth mist, like a floor,
Sea-deep spread round me, lifted o'er the world.
Then first, beside me, islanded in dawn,
A form of tender mould and boyish grace,
I saw him, like my shadow, stand and gaze
Upon the dense and mountainous world that lay

Like sun-struck dragons couched immutable,