Page:Von Heidenstam - Sweden's laureate, selected poems of Verner von Heidenstam (1919).djvu/131

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Pilgrim's Yule Song
'Tis not the dutiful
Holy brother
Goes concealed in the cloak I wear.
'Tis not the beautiful
Bright God's-mother
Who is the queen of my utmost prayer.

I have strayed about in the dread
Region of Phantoms lonely,
Long amid bones have talked with the dead,
Wraiths of the desert only,
Till by nearing them
Soon I proved them.
Sobs and laughter we came to share;
And from fearing them
Last I loved them,
Sought a home with the phantoms there.

Phantoms possessed me—in lovely sheen
Rose now a world long buried.
Nineveh maidens with wreaths of green
Decked the staff that I carried.
Stars had a shimmering
Bible clearness,
Faint-sighing music around me stole,
Till with a glimmering
Magic nearness
Old-time beauty entranced my soul.

Sewn on my cope, the mussel-shell

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