Classic Poem

From hag to hag o'er miles of quaking moss,
Benighted in an unknown countryside
Among gaunt hills, the stars my only guide,
Bewildered by peat-waters black and deep,
Wherein the mocking stars swam, at a loss
Which way to turn for shelter from the night,
I struggled on until, my head grown light
From utter weariness, I almost sank
To rest among the tussocks soft and dank,
Drowsing half-dazed and murmuring it were best
To stray no further, but to lie at rest
Beneath the cold white stars for evermore —
When suddenly I came across
A runnel oozing from the moss,
And knew that if I followed where it led
'Twould bring me to a valley in the end
Where there'd be houses and perhaps a bed.

And so the little runnel was my friend,
And as I walked beside its path at first
It kept a friendly silence, then it burst
Into a friendly singing as it rambled
Among big boulders down a craggy steep.
'Mid bracken nigh breast-deep
Through which I scrambled,
Half-blind and numb for sleep,
Until it seemed that I could strive no more:
When, startled by a startled sheep,
Looking up, I saw a track —
A stony trackway dimly white
Disappearing in the night
Across a waste of heather burnt and black;
And so I took it, mumbling o'er and o'er
In witlessness of weariness
And featherheaded foolishness —
A track must lead at some time to a door.

And trudging to this senseless tune
That kept on drumming in my head,
I followed where the pathway led;
But all too soon
It left the ling and nigh was lost
Among the bent that glimmered grey
About my sore-bewildered way,
But when at length it crossed
A brawling burn, I saw afar
A cottage window light,
A star, but no cold heavenly star,
A warm red star of welcome in the night.
Far off it burned upon the black hillside,
Sole star of earth in all that waste so wide —
A little human lanthorn in the night,
Yet more to me than all the bright
Unfriendly stars of heaven so cold and white.

And as it dimly shone,
Though towards it I could only go
With stumbling step and slow,
It quickened in my heart a kindred glow,
And seemed to draw me on
That last rough mile or so,
Now seen, now hidden when the track
Dipped down into a slack,
And all the earth again was black;
And from the unseen fern,
Grey ghost of all bewildered things,
An owl brushed by me on unrustling wings,
And gave me quite a turn
And sent a shiver through my hair.

Then again more fair
Flashed the friendly light,
Beckoning through the night,
A golden glowing square,
Growing big and clearer
As I drew slowly nearer
With eager stumbling feet,
And snuffed the homely reek of peat,
And saw above me, lone and high,
A cottage dark against the sky —
A candle shining on the window-sill.

With thankful heart I climbed the hill
And stood at last before
The dark and unknown door,
Wondering if food and shelter lay behind,
And what the welcome I should find,
Whether kindly or unkind;
But I had scarcely knocked to learn my fate
When the latch lifted and the door swung wide
On creaking hinges, and I saw inside
A frail old woman very worn and white,
Her body all atremble in the light,
Who gazed with strange still eyes into the night
As though she did not see me, but looked straight
Beyond me to some unforgotten past;
And I was startled when she said at last
With strange still voice: You're welcome, though you're late.

And then an old man, nodding in a chair
Beside the fire, awoke with sleepy stare,
And rose in haste and led her to her seat
Beside the cosy hearth of glowing peat,
And muttered to me, as he took her hand:
It's queer, it's queer that she to-night should stand
Who has not stood alone for fifteen year.
Though I heard nothing, she was quick to hear.
I must have dozed, but she has been awake
And listening for your footstep since daybreak:
For she was certain you would come to-day —
Ay, she was sure, for all that I could say;
Talk as I might, she would not go to bed
Till you should come. Your supper has been spread
This long while: you'll be ready for your meat.
With that he beckoned me to take a seat
Before the table, lifting from the crook
The singing kettle; while with far-off look,
As though she neither saw nor heard,
His wife sat gazing at the glowing peat.

So, wondering sorely, I sat down to eat;
And yet she neither spoke nor stirred,
But in her high-backed chair sat bolt-upright
With still grey eyes and tumbled hair, as white
As fairy-cotton, straggling o'er her brow
And hung in wisps about her wasted cheek.
But when I'd finished and drawn near the fire
She suddenly turned round to speak,
Her old eyes kindling with a tense desire.
Her words came tremblingly: You'll tell me now
What news you bring of him, my son? Amazed
I met that searching and love-famished look;
And then the old man, seeing I looked dazed
Made shift to swing aside the kettle-crook,
And muttered in my ear:
John Netherton, his name . — And, as I gazed
Into the peat that broke in clear blue flame,
Remembrance flashed upon me with the name,
And I slipped back in memory twenty-year —
Back to the fo'c'sle of a villainous boat;
And once again in that hot hell I lay
Watching the smoky lanthorn duck and sway,
As though in steamy stench it kept afloat ...
The fiery fangs of fever at my throat,
And my poor broken arm, ill-set,
A bar of white-hot iron at my side:
And as I lay with staring eyes pricked wide
Throughout eternities of agony
I saw a big black shadow stoop o'er me,
And felt a cool hand touch my brow and wet
My cracking lips, and sank in healing sleep;
And when I rose from that unfathomed deep
I saw the youngest of that rascal crew
Beside my bunk, and heard his name, and knew
'Twas he who'd brought me ease: but soon ashore
We parted, and I never saw him more,
Though some while after in another place
I heard he'd perished in a drunken brawl.

And now the old man touched me, to recall
My wandering thoughts, and breathed again the name;
And I looked up into the mother's face
That burned before me with grey eyes aflame.
And so I told her how I'd met her son,
And of the kindly things that he had done:
And as I spoke her quivering spirit drank
The news that it had thirsted for so long,
And for a flashing moment gay and strong
Life flamed in her old eyes, then slowly sank.
And he was happy when you saw him last?
She asked, and I was glad to answer — Yes .
Then all sat dreaming without stir or sound
As gradually she sank into the past
With eyes that looked beyond all happiness,
Beyond all earthly trouble and distress,
Into some other world than ours. The thread
That long had held the straining life earthbound
Was loosed at last: her eyes grew dark: her head
Drooped slowly on her breast, and she was dead.

The old man at her side spoke not a word
As we arose and bore her to her bed,
And laid her on the clean white quilt to rest
With calm hands folded on her quiet breast:
And, hour by hour, he hardly even stirred,
Crouching beside me in the ingle-seat
And staring, staring at the still red glow:
But, when the fire was burning low
And he arose to bring fresh peat,
He muttered with dull voice and slow:
This fire has not burned out through all these years,
Not since the hearthstone first was set —
And that is nigh two hundred years ago.
My father's father built this house, and I ...
I thought my son ... and then he gave a sigh,
And as he stooped his wizened cheek was wet
With slowly trickling tears.
And now we hearkened while an owl's keen cry
Sang through the silence as it fluttered nigh
The cottage window, dazzled by the light,
Then back, with fainter hootings, into night.

But when the fresh peats broke into a blaze
He watched it with a steady dry-eyed gaze,
And spoke once more: And he, dead too!
You did not tell her, but I knew ... I knew!

And now came all the tale of their distress —
Their only son in wanton waywardness
Had left them nearly thirty years ago,
And they had never had a word from him
In all that time. ... The reckless blow
Of his unkindness struck his mother low. ...
Her hair, as ruddy as the fern
In late September by a moorland burn,
Had shrivelled rimy-white
In one short summer's night:
And they had looked and looked for his return. ...
His mother set for him at every meal
And kept his bed well aired ... the knife and fork
I'd used were Jim's ... but as all hope grew dim
She sickened, dwindling feebler every day,
Though, when it seemed that she must pass away,
She grew more confident that, ere she passed,
A stranger would bring news to her at last
Of her lost son. And when I woke in bed
Beside her as the dawn was burning red,
She turned to me with sleepless eyes and said:
" The news will come to-day. "

He spoke no more; and silent in my seat
With burning eyes upon the burning peat
I pondered on the strangest of strange things
That had befallen in my vagrant life,
And how at last my idle wanderings
Had brought me to this old man and his wife:
And as I brooded o'er the blaze,
I thought with awe of that steadfast desire
Which, unto me unknown,
Had drawn me through long years by such strange ways
From that dark fo'c'sle to this cottage fire.

And now, at last, quite spent I fell asleep
And slumbered long and deep;
And when I waked the peat was smouldering white
Upon the white hearthstone;
And over heath and bent dawn kindled bright
Beyond dark ridges in a rosy fleece,
While from the little window morning light
Fell on her face, made holy with the peace
That passeth understanding, and was shed
In tender beams upon the low-bowed head
Of that old man forlorn beside the bed.