_Poor friend, this alien hungry land Has closed her lips upon her prey. The tree is spoiled into her hand; She sucks the brook's thin veins away._ _A sterner voice than bade you come To reap the tears that exiles sow Has called you to her longer home, That neither bids nor lets you go._ _Seven times you baulked her lawless laws, And foiled the customs of the year; But Death defends the tyrant's cause, And makes the silent court his lair._ _The lease of life, that none can own, Is written on her agent's roll; And from the desert and the sown He takes a harsh and equal toll,_ _High-handed, scorning code or text. No hope the debtor's gaol unlocks. A friend appeals? He is the next To occupy the narrow box._ _The witness cowers, pale with fear, When Death the stalker passes by; And only prays he may not hear That ugly sound--a victim's cry._ _One weeps; his eyes are wet as long As on Death's hand the blood is wet. He says: "The King can do no wrong!" And craves permission to forget._ _How briefly to an echo clings The memory of these solemn days, The thought of those tremendous things That Death implies but never says._ _An hour ago we laid you down. The tender, tardy autumn rain Is dried within the dusty town, And we are at our rounds again._ With every round our spirits sank in bodies lean and members lank. I saw the soul of man, a cave, a wick that smouldered and smelled rank. Men's fluid facts may wash the grime from pictures of a distant time, But I can paint the truth in one small touch: our poets ceased to rhyme. Such was the army's hopelessness. I understood, who once had seen Our fading gardener rouse himself to kick and curse the wolf-cub, Life. I would not let my feet desert, but oh the woods--the woods of home That bent and beckoned in the damp zephyr in vain! I could not stoop To play false in an enterprise however mad, if once begun. Besides another miracle was wrought in me. I was in love. I was enamoured of dear Christ; His utter beauty struck me dumb, His face alone could compensate for scenes that almost made me long