Odell Shepard

Summary

Odell Shepard A Lonely Flute

That searched the distant spaces of the night
Splendid and glowing with an inward joy.
And at the darkest hour came three or four
From round the fire and would have driven them thence;
But one who knew them, gazing in their eyes,
Said: "Nay. It is his mother and his love,
The scarlet Magdalena. Let them be."
So, in the gloom beside that glimmering cross,
Beneath the broken body of him they loved,
They wept and watched—the lily and the rose.
At last the deep, low voice of Magdalen,
Toned like a distant bell, broke on the hush:
"We are so weak! What can poor women do?
Source: Gutenberg

Odell Shepard A Lonely Flute

Far off like clouds that fade across the blue;
The game is over and the night shuts down,
Blotting the little dreams of me and you
And all our hope of all we longed to do.
But courage, comrade! It's not hard to die.
It's not so lonely now. If only we know why!"
The fog-damp folded closer round the hill
And stillness deepened, but the cricket's song
Tore at the heavy hem of silence still—
One small voice left of love in a world of wrong.
A few dim stars looked down. The yelling throng
Of guns had passed beyond the mountain's brow
When once again he spoke, but slowly, faintlier now.
Source: Gutenberg

Odell Shepard A Lonely Flute

That a myriad ripple of voices replied:
"Aloft on the mountain, afar on the steep,
A voice that we knew cried aloud in our sleep,
'Come, hasten ye down to the vale and to me,
Your begetter, destroyer, preserver, the Sea!'
We must carry our feebleness down to the Strong,
We must mingle us deep in the Whole, and ere long
All the numberless host of the heaven shall ride
With the pale Lady Moon on our slumbering tide."
The voices swept out and away through the door
Of the canyon, and on to the infinite shore.
Source: Gutenberg

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