VI And should they go before us on that way That all must tread, and leave us faint with sorrow; Should the great light of Love forsake our day, Memory's bright moon bespeaks a sunbright morrow; Behold, the skies unfold! broad beams descend; Amid the upward glories without end, At Heavengate they stand, and bid us there. THOMAS GORDON HAKE Born 1809 THE SNAKE-CHARMER The forest rears on lifted arms A world of leaves, whence verdurous light There where those cruel coils enclasp An old man creeps from out the woods, O'er bamboos rotting where they fell; No moss-greened alley tells the trace Of his lone step, no sound is stirred, Even when his tawny hands displace The boughs, that backward sweep unheard His way as noiseless as the trail Of the swift snake and pilgrim snail. The old snake-charmer, once he played He knows the hour of death is near. Yet where his soul is he must go : Weeds wove with white-flowered lily crops And in the froth-daubed rushes lie. There rests he now with fastened breath 'Neath a kind sun to bask in death. The pool is bright with glossy dyes A green death-leaven overlies Its mottled scum, where shadows play As the snake's hollow coil, fresh shed, No more the wily note is heard Still doth his soul's vague longing skim Recalling days of former bliss, And the death-drops, that fall in showers, There is a rustle of the breeze And twitter of the singing bird; He snatches at the melodies And his faint lips again are stirred : His eyes are swimming in the mist That films the earth like serpent's breath: And now, as if a serpent hissed, The husky whisperings of Death Fill ear and brain-he looks around— Soon visions of past joys bewitch His crafty soul; his hands would set Death's snare, while now his fingers twitch The tasselled reed as 'twere his net. But his thin lips no longer fill The woods with song; his flute is still. Those lips still quaver to the flute, In sudden fear of snares unseen The birds like crimson sunset swarm, The wildered birds again have rushed And they obey the serpent's power,— |