: Dymer by Lewis C S Clive Staples - Epic poetry English; Narrative poetry English

@FreeBooksThu 08 Jun, 2023

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down

felt her presence fill The threshold with dull life. Here too was she. This time he raised his eyes and dared to see.

Pah! Only an old woman!... but the size, The old, old matriarchal dreadfulness, Immoveable, intolerable ... the eyes Hidden, the hidden head, the winding dress Corpselike.... The weight of the brute that seemed to press Upon his heart and breathing. Then he heard His own voice, strange and humbled, take the word.

"Good Mother, let me pass. I have a friend To look for in this house. I slept the night And feasted here--it was my journey's end, --I found it by the music and the light, And no one kept the doors, and I did right To enter--did I not? Now, Mother, pray, Let me pass in ... good Mother, give me way."

Courage was rising in him now. He said, "Out of my path, old woman. For this cause I am new born, new freed, and here new wed, That I might be the breaker of bad laws. The frost of old forbiddings breaks and thaws Wherever my feet fall. I bring to birth Under its crust the green, ungrudging earth."

He had started, bowing low: but now he stood Stretched to his height. His own voice in his breast Made misery pompous, firing all his blood. "Enough," he cried. "Give place. You shall not wrest My love from me. I journey on a quest You cannot understand, whose strength shall bear me Through fire and earth. A bogy will not scare me.

"I am the sword of spring; I am the truth. Old night put out your stars, the dawn is here, The sleeper's wakening, and the wings of youth. With crumbling veneration and cowed fear I make no truce. My loved one, live and dear, Waits for me. Let me in! I fled the City, Shall I fear you or ... Mother, ah, for pity."

For his high mood fell shattered. Like a man Unnerved, in bayonet-fighting, in the thick, --Full of red rum and cheers when he began, Now, in a dream, muttering: "I've not the trick. It's no good. I'm no good. They're all too quick. There! Look there! Look at that!" So Dymer stood, Suddenly drained of hope. It was no good.

He pleaded then. Shame beneath shame. "Forgive. It may be there are powers I cannot break. If you are of them, speak. Speak. Let me live. I ask so small a thing. I beg. I make My body a living prayer whose force would shake The mountains. I'll recant--confess my sin-- But this once let me pass. I must go in.

"Yield but one inch, once only from your law Set any price--I will give all, obey All else but this, hold your least word in awe, Give you no cause for anger from this day. Answer! The least things living when they pray As I pray now bear witness. They speak true Against God. Answer! Mother, let me through."

Then when he heard no answer, mad with fear And with desire, too strained with both to know What he desired or feared, yet staggering near, He forced himself towards her and bent low For grappling. Then came darkness. Then a blow Fell on his heart, he thought. There came a blank Of all things. As the dead sink, down he sank.

The first big drops are rattling on the trees, The sky is copper dark, low thunder pealing. See Dymer with drooped head and knocking knees Comes from the porch. Then slowly, drunkly reeling, Blind, beaten, broken, past desire of healing, Past knowledge of his misery, he goes on Under the first dark trees and now is gone.

CANTO IV

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

Login to post a comment!