Classic Poem

Over his dying head the shadowed veil of heaven
Pales and grows thin, its nocturn darkness riven
By the argent lance of the moon a-sail on high.
His eyes, renewed with radiance, seek in the lighted space,
The wraith of a smile hovers and passes over his face;
Fernan Dias opens his arms to earth and sky.

In a green heaven the stars break into flames of green;
In the green forest glade green flowers dance between
Emerald trunks, as oreads dancing on grassy floors;
Lightning flashing green all the still heaven fills,
The sullen flood of the river breaks into emerald rills;
Green from out green skies a rain of emeralds pours.

Now as a man from death raised by the hands of a lover,
Resurrected, he rises; his dying eyes recover
Sight for the vision that tells again of his seven-year seeking;
Life in his veins flows new; his eager senses rejoice,
And to his hearing comes the sound of a clarion Voice,
Clear in the hush of the night, from that bright glory speaking:

" Die! As in thine hands the stones that thou hast sought
Dissolve as a dream fades, in dust returned to nought;
What matter? Sleep in peace! Sleep, for thy toil is ended!
Link after link, over plain and on rugged mountain slope
As a belt of emeralds strewn, as a shining pledge of hope,
Green in the desert sands, the towns of thy heart are extended.

" Their hands in Fortune's hands, linked to what whim of hers,
Marched from the camp each dawn thy band of wanderers;
North and south sought they, through plain and forest maze,
Shelter and surcease of care. Now on each wild hillside,
The walls of a homestead stand erect with a victor's pride,
And the beacon light of a hearth on the desert sheds its rays.

" In all thy wandering, adventure compassless,
Thou, like the sun, wert a very fount of fruitfulness;
Behind each weary step lay a highway for man's tread;
Victory hailed thy name by every charted stream;
And as thou wanderedst on, dreaming thy selfish dream,
As stirred by the step of a god, the desert blossomed.

" Die! From each drop of sweat, from the fount of each burning tear,
Fertile, a newer life shall spring in a newer year;
Fruitful shall be thy thirst, thy vigil and thy fast.
Under the kiss of the sun, harvests shall ripening lie,
Under the kiss of love thy race shall multiply,
And the land whereon thou liest shall burgeon. Then at last

" In the voice of the plough thou shalt sing, in the bell's daily song
In the tumult of crowded streets, in the midst of the laughing throng,
In hymns of blessed peace, in the clamour of man's endeavour;
Through veiling mists of time shall rise thy bright renown,
Thou ravisher of the desert, thou planter of many a town!
In the heart of thy fatherland thy name shall live forever. "

The fateful voice is stilled. All the earth hushes:
The fair high-sailing moon her silver fingers pushes
Through the sleeping leaves of the forest majesties;
In the maternal arms of Earth, content, enwrapped,
In the eternal peace of the starry spaces lapped,
Forever free from questing, Fernan Dias dies.