The Blind Caravan

1     I am a slave, both dumb and blind,
2         Upon a journey dread;
3     The iron hills lie far behind,
4         The seas of mist ahead.

5     Amid a mighty caravan
6         I toil a sombre track,
7     The strangest road since time began,
8         Where no foot turneth back.

9     Here rosy youth at morning's prime
10       And weary man at noon
11   Are crooked shapes at eventime
12       Beneath the haggard moon.

13   Faint elfin songs from out the past
14       Of some lost sunset land
15   Haunt this grim pageant drifting, vast,
16       Across the trackless sand.

17   And often for some nightward wind
18       We stay a space and hark,
19   Then leave the sunset lands behind,
20       And plunge into the dark.

21   Somewhere, somewhere, far on in front,
22       There strides a lonely man
23   Who is all strength, who bears the brunt,
24       The battle and the ban.

25   I know not of his face or form,
26       His voice or battle-scars,
27   Or how he fronts the haunted storm
28       Beneath the wintry stars;

29   I know not of his wisdom great
30       That leads this sightless host
31   Beyond the barren hills of fate
32       Unto some kindlier coast.

33   But often 'mid the eerie black
34       Through this sad caravan
35   A strange, sweet thrill is whispered back,
36       Borne on from man to man.

37   A strange, glad joy that fills the night
38       Like some far marriage horn,
39   Till every heart is filled with light
40       Of some belated morn.

41   The way is long, and rough the road,
42       And bitter the night, and dread,
43   And each poor slave is but a goad
44       To lash the one ahead.

45   Evil the foes that lie in wait
46       To slay us in the pass,
47   Bloody the slaughter at the gate,
48       And bleak the wild morass;

49   And I am but a shriveled thing
50       Beneath the midnight sky;
51   A wasted, wan remembering
52       Of days long wandered by.

53   And yet I lift my sightless face
54       Toward the eerie light,
55   And tread the lonely way we trace
56       Across the haunted night.