When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour What gulfs between him and the Greatening and darkening as it hur ried on, She left the Heaven of Heroes and And laid on him a sense of the Mystic Powers, Moving all husht-behind the mortal veil. Here was a man to hold against the world, A man to match the mountains and the sea. 15 The color of the ground was in him, the red earth; The smack and tang of elemental things; The rectitude and patience of the cliff; The good-will of the rain that loves all leaves; The friendly welcome of the wayside well; 20 The courage of the bird that dares the sea; The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn; The pity of the snow that hides all scars; The secrecy of streams that make their Under the mountain to the rifted rock; The tolerance and equity of light Three of us with shocking hats, We've come down from Kennebec, Sometimes lodging in an inn, 10 Sitting on the pasture bars, Hail-fellow with storm or starsThree of us alive and free, From the rocky headlands; Overhead the wild geese fly, Honking in the autumn sky; Black sinister flocks of crow Settle in the dead lands. Three of us in love with life, With the stinging air a-reel 5 The swift orgasm of the knife Slay him in mid-battle. 45 50 |