POEM
DAY after day we kept the dusty road
And nearer drew small-towered Jerusalem, Nearer and nearer. Lightened of the goad Our beasts went on as if the air wafted them.
We saw the other bands with music move Between the shining meadows, far and clear, Onward towards the city, and above The ridge the fresh young firmament looked near.
All stood so silent in the silent air : The little houses set on every hill, A tree before each house. The people were Dreamlike, not sad nor glad. How they could till
Their simple fields, here, almost at the end
Perplexed us. We were filled with dumb surprise At wells and mills, and could not understand This was an order natural and wise Even to the beasts. Yet some of us declared : " Let us stay here. We ask no more than this," Though we were now so close, we who had dared Half a world's spite to hit the mark of bliss.
So we went on to the end. But there we found A waste land pitted with blind whirling places, And mobs of angry men standing around With blink blue eyes and raging rubicund faces,
Who would not let us pass. Their arms were old, Their swords rusted, their generals deaf and blind. If we had bribed these men, would they have sold The sacred place ? If we had fought them, signed A hurried peace ? We do not know. We saw In thought the holy streets running with blood, And centuries of fear and power and awe,
And all our children lost in the deadly wood.
So we went home. Before we went our eyes
Saw wingid men walking along the wall. We have made an order natural and wise Here, like a dream, until the destiny fall EDWIN Mum.
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