Chapter IV

Base rewards and glamours, the beating tide of hours, The crying and clamors and the surge of silent powers Pass me and pass me now. Silently I go The one road, the only road I know.

Oh, bare and bright as dreams And laced with silver streams Lies the land on either hand, past the darkness and dread. Though a man must grip his soul lest it start from all control, And must bow his head.

Where are your footprints on air that I may find them? Where your radiant garments that I may hide behind them? No, it is my own road, straight and black That turns not back.

I will search till the darkness sears on either hand With the drifting sparkles of some fiery brand, Of some pain that lights me nearer to the land of your endeavor. I will search forever.

The torrent of the hours like a veil veiling heaven, The war with bitter powers--I am given. But light that you left me--light, your own decision, Your secret and your vision.

Time? What is Time now. Standing to the thong And the dream that is passing, time is not long. And I shall find the valley past the mountains that defeat me, And see you come to meet me.