Canto + 

IX + 

Even as he heard the wicket clash behind + 

Came a great wind beneath that seemed to tear + 

The solid graves apart; and deaf and blind + 

Whirled him upright, like smoke, through towering air + 

Whose levels were as steps of a sky stair. + 

The parching cold roughened his throat with thirst + 

And pricked him at the heart. This was the first. + 

And as he soared into the next degree, + 

Suddenly all round him he could hear + 

Sad strings that fretted inconsolably + 

And ominous horns that blew both far and near. + 

There broke his human heart, and his last tear + 

Froze scalding on his chin. But while he heard + 

He shot like a sped dart into the third. + 

And its first stroke of silence could destroy + 

The spring of tears forever and compress + 

From off his lips the curved bow of the boy + 

Forever. The sidereal loneliness + 

Received him, where no journeying leaves the less + 

Still to be journeyed through: but everywhere, + 

Fast though you fly, the centre still is there. + 

And here the well-worn fabric of our life + 

Fell from him. Hope and purpose were cut short, + 

—Even the blind trust that reaches in mid-strife + 

Towards some heart of things. Here blew the mort + 

For the world spirit herself. The last support + 

Was fallen away⁠—Himself, one spark of soul, + 

Swam in unbroken void. He was the whole, + 

And wailing: “Why hast Thou forsaken me? + 

Was there no world at all, but only I + 

Dreaming of gods and men?” Then suddenly + 

He felt the wind no more: he seemed to fly + 

Faster than light but free, and scaled the sky + 

In his own strength⁠—as if a falling stone + 

Should wake to find the world’s will was its own. + 

And on the instant, straight before his eyes + 

He looked and saw a sentry shape that stood + 

Leaning upon its spear, with hurrying skies + 

Behind it and a moonset red as blood. + 

Upon its head were helmet and mailed hood, + 

And shield upon its arm and sword at thigh, + 

All black and pointed sharp against the sky. + 

Then came the clink of metal, the dry sound + 

Of steel on rock and challenge: “Who comes here?” + 

And as he heard it, Dymer at one bound + 

Stood in the stranger’s shadow, with the spear + 

Between them. And his human face came near + 

That larger face. “What watch is this you keep,” + 

Said Dymer, “on edge of such a deep?” + 

And answer came, “I watch both night and day + 

This frontier⁠ ⁠… there are beasts of the upper air + 

As beasts of the deep sea⁠ ⁠… one walks this way + 

Night after night, far scouring from his lair, + 

Chewing the cud of lusts which are despair + 

And fill not, while his mouth gapes dry for bliss + 

That never was.”⁠—“What kind of beast is this?” + 

“A kind of things escaped that have no home, + 

Hunters of men. They love the spring uncurled, + 

The will worn down, the wearied hour. They come + 

At night-time when the mask is off the world + 

And the soul’s gate ill-locked and the flag furled + 

—Then, softly, a pale swarm, and in disguise, + 

Flit past the drowsy watchman, small as flies.” + 

—“I’ll see this aerish beast whereof you speak. + 

I’ll share the watch with you.”⁠—“Nay, little One, + 

Begone. You are of earth. The flesh is weak⁠ ⁠…” + 

—“What is the flesh to me? My course is run, + 

All but some deed still waiting to be done, + 

Some moment I may rise on, as the boat + 

Lifts with the lifting tide and steals afloat. + 

“You are a spirit, and it is well with you, + 

But I am come out of great folly and shame, + 

The sack of cities, wrongs I must undo⁠ ⁠… + 

But tell me of the beast, and whence it came; + 

Who were its sire and dam? What is its name?” + 

—“It is my kin. All monsters are the brood + 

Of heaven and earth, and mixed with holy blood.” + 

—“How can this be?”⁠—“My son, sit here awhile. + 

There is a lady in that primal place + 

Where I was born, who with her ancient smile + 

Made glad the sons of heaven. She loved to chase + 

The springtime round the world. To all your race + 

She was a sudden quivering in the wood + 

Or a new thought springing in solitude. + 

“Till, in prodigious hour, one swollen with youth, + 

Blind from new-broken prison, knowing not + 

Himself nor her, nor how to mate with truth, + 

Lay with her in a strange and secret spot, + 

Mortal with her immortal, and begot + 

This walker-in-the-night.”⁠—“But did you know + 

This mortal’s name?”⁠—“Why⁠ ⁠… it was long ago. + 

“And yet, I think, I near the name in mind; + 

It was some famished boy whom tampering men + 

Had crippled in their chains and made him blind + 

Till their weak hour discovered them: and then + 

He broke that prison. Softly!⁠—it comes again, + 

I have it. It was Dymer, little One, + 

Dymer’s the name. This spectre is his son.” + 

Then, after silence, came an answering shout + 

From Dymer, glad and full: “Break off! Dismiss! + 

Your watch is ended and your lamp is out. + 

Unarm, unarm. Return into your bliss. + 

You are relieved, Sir. I must deal with this + 

As in my right. For either I must slay + 

This beast or else be slain before the day.” + 

“So mortal and so brave?” that other said, + 

Smiling, and turned and looked in Dymer’s eyes, + 

Scanning him over twice from heel to head + 

—Like an old sergeant’s glance, grown battle-wise + 

To know the points of men. At last, “Arise,” + 

He said, “and wear my arms. I can withhold + 

Nothing; for such an hour has been foretold.” + 

Thereat, with lips as cold as the sea-surge, + 

He kissed the youth, and bending on one knee + 

Put all his armour off and let emerge + 

Angelic shoulders marbled gloriously + 

And feet like frozen speed and, plain to see, + 

On his wide breast dark wounds and ancient scars, + 

The battle honours of celestial wars. + 

Then like a squire or brother born he dressed + 

The young man in those plates, that dripped with cold + 

Upon the inside, trickling over breast + 

And shoulder: but without, the figured gold + 

Gave to the tinkling ice its jagged hold, + 

And the icy spear froze fast to Dymer’s hand. + 

But where the other had stood he took his stand. + 

And searched the cloudy landscape. He could see + 

Dim shapes like hills appearing, but the moon + 

He sunk behind their backs. “When will it be?” + 

Said Dymer: and the other, “Soon now, soon. + 

For either he comes past us at night’s noon + 

Or else between the night and the full day, + 

And down there, on your left, will be his way.” + 

—“Swear that you will not come between us two + 

Nor help me by a hair’s weight if I bow.” + 

—“If you are he, if prophecies speak true, + 

Not heaven and all the gods can help you now. + 

This much I have been told, but know not how + 

The fight will end. Who knows? I cannot tell.” + 

“Sir, be content,” said Dymer. “I know well.” + 

Thus Dymer stood to arms, with eyes that ranged + 

Through aching darkness: stared upon it, so + 

That all things, as he looked upon them, changed + 

And were not as at first. But grave and slow + 

The larger shade went sauntering to and fro, + 

Humming at first the snatches of some tune + 

That soldiers sing, but falling silent soon. + 

Then came steps of dawn. And though they heard + 

No milking cry in the fields, and no cock crew, + 

And out of empty air no twittering bird + 

Sounded from neighbouring hedges, yet they knew. + 

Eastward the hollow blackness paled to blue, + 

Then blue to white: and in the West the rare, + 

Surviving stars blinked feebler in cold air. + 

For beneath Dymer’s feet the sad half-light + 

Discovering the new landscape oddly came, + 

And forms grown half familiar in the night + 

Looked strange again: no distance seemed the same. + 

And now he could see clear and call by name + 

Valleys and hills and woods. The phantoms all + 

Took shape, and made a world, at morning’s call. + 

It was a ruinous land. The ragged stumps + 

Of broken trees rose out of endless clay + 

Naked of flower and grass: the slobbered humps + 

Dividing the dead pools. Against the grey + 

A shattered village gaped. But now the day + 

Was very near them and the night was past, + 

And Dymer understood and spoke at last. + 

“Now I have wooed and won you, bridal earth, + 

Beautiful world that lives, desire of men. + 

All that the spirit intended at my birth + 

This day shall be born into deed⁠ ⁠… and then + 

The hard day’s labour comes no more again + 

Forever. The pain dies. The longings cease. + 

The ship glides under the green arch of peace. + 

“Now drink me as the sun drinks up the mist. + 

This is the hour to cease in, at full flood, + 

That asks no gift form following years⁠—but, hist! + 

Look yonder! At the corner of that wood⁠— + 

Look! Look there where he comes! It shocks the blood, + 

The first sight, eh? Now, sentinel, stand clear + 

And save yourself. For God’s sake come not near.” + 

His full-grown spirit had moved without command + 

Or spur of the will. Before he knew, he found + 

That he was leaping forward spear in hand + 

To where that ashen brute wheeled slowly round + 

Nosing, and set its ears towards the sounds, + 

The pale and heavy brute, rough-ridged behind, + 

And full of eyes, clinking in scaly rind. + 

And now ten paces parted them: and here + 

He halted. He thrust forward his left foot, + 

Poising his straightened arms, and launched the spear, + 

And gloriously it sang. But now the brute + 

Lurched forward: and he saw the weapon shoot + 

Beyond it and fall quivering on the field. + 

Dymer drew out his sword and raised the shield. + 

What now my friends? You get no more from me + 

Of Dymer. He goes from us. What he felt + 

Or saw from henceforth no man knows but he + 

Who has himself gone through the jungle belt + 

Of dying, into peace. That angel knelt + 

Far off and watched them close but could not see + 

Their battle. All was ended suddenly. + 

A leap⁠—a cry⁠—flurry of steel and claw, + 

Then silence. As before, the morning light + 

And the same brute crouched yonder; and he saw + 

Under its feet, broken and bent and white, + 

The ruined limbs of Dymer, killed outright + 

All in a moment, all his story done. + 

… But that same moment came the rising sun; + 

And thirty miles to westward, the grey cloud + 

Flushed into answering pink. Long shadows streamed + 

From every hill, and the low-hanging shroud + 

Of mist along the valleys broke and steamed + 

Gold-flecked to heaven. Far off the armour gleamed + 

Like glass upon the dead man’s back. But now + 

The sentinel ran forward, hand to brow. + 

And staring. For between him and the sun + 

He saw that country clothed with dancing flowers + 

Where flower had never grown; and one by one + 

The splintered woods, as if from April showers, + 

Were softening into green. In the leafy towers + 

Rose the cool, sudden chattering on the tongues + 

Of happy birds with morning in their lungs. + 

The wave of flowers came breaking round his feet, + 

Crocus and bluebell, primrose, daffodil + 

Shivering with moisture: and the air grew sweet + 

Within his nostrils, changing heart and will, + 

Making him laugh. He looked, and Dymer still + 

Lay dead among the flowers and pinned beneath + 

The brute: but as he looked he held his breath; + 

For when he had gazed hard with steady eyes + 

Upon the brute, behold, no brute was there, + 

But someone towering large against the skies, + 

A wing’d and sworded shaped, whose foam-like hair + 

Lay white about its shoulders, and the air + 

That came from it was burning hot. The whole + 

Pure body brimmed with life, as a full bowl. + 

And from the distant corner of day’s birth + 

He heard clear trumpets blowing and bells ring, + 

A noise of great good coming into earth + 

And such a music as the dumb would sing + 

If Balder had led back the blameless spring + 

With victory, with the voice of charging spears, + 

And in white lands long-lost Saturnian years. + 