Together we shall make the last grand charge
And ride with gorgeous Death
With all her spangles on
And cymbals clashing...
And you shall rush on exultant as I fall--
Scattering a brief fire about your feet...

Let it be so...
Better--while life is quick
And every pain immense and joy supreme,
And all I have and am
Flames upward to the dream...
Than like a taper forgotten in the dawn,
Burning out the wick.

THE SONG OF IRON

I

Not yet hast Thou sounded
Thy clangorous music,
Whose strings are under the mountains...
Not yet hast Thou spoken
The blooded, implacable Word...

But I hear in the Iron singing--
In the triumphant roaring of the steam and pistons pounding--
Thy barbaric exhortation...
And the blood leaps in my arteries, unreproved,
Answering Thy call...