As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: All was black,In heaven no single star, on earth no track;A brooding hush without a stir or note,The air so thick it clotted in my throat;And thus for hours; then some enormous thingsSwooped past with savage cries and clanking wings: But I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: Eyes of fireGlared at me throbbing with a starved desire;The hoarse and heavy and carnivorous breathWas hot upon me from deep jaws of death;Sharp claws, swift talons, fleshless fingers coldPlucked at me from the bushes, tried to hold: But I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: Lo you, there,That hillock burning with a brazen glare;Those myriad dusky flames with points a-glowWhich writhed and hissed and darted to and fro;A Sabbath of the Serpents, heaped pell-mellFor Devil's roll-call and some fête of Hell: Yet I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: Meteors ranAnd crossed their javelins on the black sky-span;The zenith opened to a gulf of flame,The dreadful thunderbolts jarred earth's fixed frame:The ground all heaved in waves of fire that surgedAnd weltered round me sole there unsubmerged: Yet I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: Air once more,And I was close upon a wild sea-shore;Enormous cliffs arose on either hand,The deep tide thundered up a league-broad strand;White foambelts seethed there, wan spray swept and flew;The sky broke, moon and stars and clouds and blue: And I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: On the leftThe sun arose and crowned a broad crag-cleft;There stopped and burned out black, except a rim,A bleeding eyeless socket, red and dim;Whereon the moon fell suddenly south-west,And stood above the right-hand cliffs at rest: Still I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: From the rightA shape came slowly with a ruddy light;A woman with a red lamp in her hand,Bareheaded and barefooted on that strand;O desolation moving with such grace!O anguish with such beauty in thy face. I fell as on my bier, Hope travailed with such fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: I was twain,Two selves distinct that cannot join again;One stood apart and knew but could not stir,And watched the other stark in swoon and her;And she came on, and never turned aside,Between such sun and moon and roaring tide: And as she came more near My soul grew mad with fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: Hell is mildAnd piteous matched with that accursèd wild;A large black sign was on her breast that bowed,A broad black band ran down her snow-white shroud;That lamp she held was her own burning heart,Whose blood-drops trickled step by step apart; The mystery was clear; Mad rage had swallowed fear.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: By the seaShe knelt and bent above that senseless me;Those lamp-drops fell upon my white brow there,She tried to cleanse them with her tears and hair;She murmured words of pity, love, and woe,She heeded not the level rushing flow: And mad with rage and fear, I stood stonebound so near.
As I came through the desert thus it was,As I came through the desert: When the tideSwept up to her there kneeling by my side,She clasped that corpse-like me, and they were borneAway, and this vile me was left forlorn;I know the whole sea cannot quench that heart,Or cleanse that brow, or wash those two apart: They love; their doom is drear, Yet they nor hope nor fear;But I, what do I here?
