ONE
NIGHT
|
|
THE
wood is cold, and dank, and green;
The trunks stand close in
sullen row;
A crookéd moon through a creeping screen
Of night-fog rots in the
roots below.
The pool is thick, and dead, and green;
|
5 |
Its
bubbles gleam the roots below;
To feed the slimy growths between
The slimy roots the ooze
drips slow.
My feet can find no standing-place,
The monstrous trunk my arms
grasp not;
|
10 |
Across
the roots upon my face
I fall, and pray my soul
can not.
And one came by, and bare a load—
An unstrange form—to where
I lay;
Into the pool he cast his load:
|
15 |
"Look
to it," he said, and went away.
The thick scum closed; the body slid
Beneath the roots to where
I lay,
And rose face up: I fain had hid
My eyes; their lids forgot
the way.
|
20 |
And
fain my hands had hid my face,
But could not quit their
slimy hold;
Close to my face its loathly face
Uprose, and back its swathings
rolled.
Its dead eyes woke and with mine met
|
25 |
Familiarly;
at that I wept.
My tears fell big and fast, and set
More foulness forth the
scum had kept.
And more I wept more foul it grew;
All else grew black, and
my heart dropped down.
|
30 |
I
had lain there for an age, I knew,
And must lie there till
the body sank down.
Then One came by to where I lay;
He had heard my tears and
come to me.
He had heard my tears (for I could not pray),
|
35 |
And
pitied me, and had come to me.
He touched the body, and it sank down
Beyond my sight, though
the pool was clear;
And the space above was a sapphire crown
Upon their heads, for the
trees to wear.
|
40 |
He
stood me up upon my feet,
And the trunks were dry
and my hands were clean;
The breath of laughing leaves was sweet:
And he left me in this pleasant
scene. |
|
|
