Grey grows the dawn while men-folk sleep,
Unseen spreads on the light,
Till the thrush sings to the coloured things,
And earth forgets the night.

No otherwise wends on our Hope: 
E’en as a tale that’s told
Are fair lives lost, and all the cost
Of wise and true and bold.

We’ve toiled and failed; we spake the word;
None hearkened; dumb we lie;
Our Hope is dead, the seed we spread
Fell o’er the earth to die.

What’s this?  For joy our hearts stand still,
And life is loved and dear,
The lost and found the Cause hath crowned,
The Day of Days is here.

TO THE MUSE OF THE NORTH

O muse that swayest the sad Northern Song,
Thy right hand full of smiting and of wrong,
Thy left hand holding pity; and thy breast
Heaving with hope of that so certain rest: 
Thou, with the grey eyes kind and unafraid,
The soft lips trembling not, though they have said
The doom of the World and those that dwell therein. 
The lips that smile not though thy children win
The fated Love that draws the fated Death. 
O, borne adown the fresh stream of thy breath,
Let some word reach my ears and touch my heart,
That, if it may be, I may have a part
In that great sorrow of thy children dead
That vexed the brow, and bowed adown the head,
Whitened the hair, made life a wondrous dream,
And death the murmur of a restful stream,
But left no stain upon those souls of thine
Whose greatness through the tangled world doth shine. 
O Mother, and Love and Sister all in one,
Come thou; for sure I am enough alone
That thou thine arms about my heart shouldst throw,
And wrap me in the grief of long ago.

OF THE THREE SEEKERS

There met three knights on the woodland,
And the first was clad in silk array: 
The second was dight in iron and steel,
But the third was rags from head to heel. 
“Lo, now is the year and the day come round
When we must tell what we have found.” 
The first said:  “I have found a king
Who grudgeth no gift of anything.” 
The second said:  “I have found a knight
Who hath never turned his back in fight.” 
But the third said:  “I have found a love
That Time and the World shall never move.”

Whither away to win good cheer? 
“With me,” said the first, “for my king is near.” 
So to the King they went their ways;
But there was a change of times and days. 
“What men are ye,” the great King said,
“That ye should eat my children’s bread? 
My waste has fed full many a store,
And mocking and grudge have I gained therefore. 
Whatever waneth as days wax old. 
Full worthy to win are goods and gold.”