Along a river-side, I know not where, I walked last night in mystery of dream; A chill creeps curdling yet beneath my hair, To think what chanced me by the pallid gleam Of a moon-wraith that waned through haunted air.
Pale fire-flies pulsed within the meadow mist Their halos, wavering thistle-downs of light; The loon, that seemed to mock some goblin tryst, Laughed; and the echoes, huddling in affright, Like Odin's hounds, fled baying down the night.
Then all was silent, till there smote my ear A movement in the stream that checked my breath: Was it the slow plash of a wading deer? But something said, "This water is of Death! The Sisters wash a Shroud,--ill thing to hear!"
I, looking then, beheld the ancient Three, Known to the Greek's and to the Norseman's creed, That sit in shadow of the mystic Tree, Still crooning, as they weave their endless brede, One song: "Time was, Time is, and Time shall be."
No wrinkled crones were they, as I had deemed, But fair as yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, To mourner, lover, poet, ever seemed; Something too deep for joy, too high for sorrow, Thrilled in their tones and from their faces gleamed.
"Still men and nations reap as they have strawn,"-- So sang they, working at their task the while,-- "The fatal raiment must be cleansed ere dawn: For Austria? Italy? the Sea-Queen's Isle? O'er what quenched grandeur must our shroud be drawn?
"Or is it for a younger, fairer corse, That gathered States for children round his knees, That tamed the wave to be his posting-horse, The forest-feller, linker of the seas, Bridge-builder, hammerer, youngest son of Thor's?
"What make we, murmur'st thou, and what are we? When empires must be wound, we bring the shroud, The time-old web of the implacable Three: Is it too coarse for him, the young and proud? Earth's mightiest deigned to wear it; why not he?"
"Is there no hope?" I moaned. "So strong, so fair! Our Fowler, whose proud bird would brook erewhile No rival's swoop in all our western air! Gather the ravens, then, in funeral file, For him, life's morn-gold bright yet in his hair?
"Leave me not hopeless, ye unpitying dames! I see, half-seeing. Tell me, ye who scanned The stars, Earth's elders, still must noblest aims Be traced upon oblivious ocean-sands? Must Hesper join the wailing ghosts of names?"