The Ride Back

Before the coming of the dark, he dreamed             An old-world faded story: of a knight,             Much like in need to him, who was no knight!             And of a road, much like the road his soul             Groped over, desperate to meet Her soul.             Beside the bed Death waited. And he dreamed.             His limbs were heavy from the fight,             His mail was dark with dust and blood;             On his good horse they bound him tight,             And on his breast they bound the rood             To help him in the ride that night.             When he crashed through the wood's wet rim,             About the dabbled reeds a breeze             Went moaning broken words and dim;             The haggard shapes of twilight trees             Caught with their scrawny hands at him.             Between the doubtful aisles of day             Strange folk and lamentable stood             To maze and beckon him astray,             But through the grey wrath of the wood             He held right on his bitter way.             When he came where the trees were thin,             The moon sat waiting there to see;             On her worn palm she laid her chin,             And laughed awhile in sober glee             To think how strong this knight had been.             When he rode past the pallid lake,             The withered yellow stems of flags             Stood breast-high for his horse to break;             Lewd as the palsied lips of hags             The petals in the moon did shake.             When he came by the mountain wall,             The snow upon the heights looked down             And said, "The sight is pitiful.             The nostrils of his steed are brown             With frozen blood; and he will fall."             The iron passes of the hills             With question were importunate;             And, but the sharp-tongued icy rills             Had grown for once compassionate,             The spiteful shades had had their wills.             Just when the ache in breast and brain             And the frost smiting at his face             Had sealed his spirit up with pain,             He came out in a better place,             And morning lay across the plain.             He saw the wet snails crawl and cling             On fern-stalks where the rime had run,             The careless birds went wing and wing,             And in the low smile of the sun             Life seemed almost a pleasant thing.             Right on the panting charger swung             Through the bright depths of quiet grass;             The knight's lips moved as if they sung,             And through the peace there came to pass             The flattery of lute and tongue.             From the mid-flowering of the mead             There swelled a sob of minstrelsy,             Faint sackbuts and the dreamy reed,             And plaintive lips of maids thereby,             And songs blown out like thistle seed.             Forth from her maidens came the bride,             And as his loosened rein fell slack             He muttered, "In their throats they lied             Who said that I should ne'er win back             To kiss her lips before I died!"