The yellow eyes and the raven hair
And the tawny arms blown fresh and bare,
Were more than a mortal might behold
And live with the saints for a crown of gold.
The Kelpie riders were stricken sore;
They wavered, and wheeled, and rode for the shore.
"Kelpie, Kelpie, treble your stride!
Never again on the sea we ride.
"Kelpie, Kelpie, out of the storm;
On, for the fields of earth are warm!"
Knee to knee they are riding in:
"Brother, brother,--the goblin kin!"
The meadows rocked as they clomb the scaur;
The pines re-echo for evermore
The sound of the host of Kelpie men;
But the windflowers died on Bareau Fen.
Over the marshes all night long
The stars went round to a riding song:
"Kelpie, Kelpie, carry us through!"
And the goblin maidens danced thereto.
Till dawn,--and the revel died with a shout,
For the ocean riders were wearied out.
They looked, and the grass was warm and soft;
The dreamy clouds went over aloft;
A gloom of pines on the weather verge
Had the lulling sound of their own white surge;
A whip-poor-will, far from their din,
Was saying his litanies therein.
Then voices neither loud nor deep:
"Tired, so tired; sleep! ah, sleep!
"The stars are calm, and the earth is warm,
But the sea for an earldom is given to storm.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39