Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/142

'To him who knows what love is, love is all';
And on my ring I bear the blessèd words,
'Love is but one thing with the gentle heart.'
Lo! on my hand the golden circle bound!
Sweet is the gospel of the gentle heart,
Wherewith I travel." On the little ring
Centred their eyes. "What talisman hast thou,
That holds thee safe 'gainst disarraying death,
Where most his empire rules? The living word
Is yet the burden of thy breath!" they cried,
Together risen, awe-struck. "Love is my lord,
And in his charge I go," the Roamer said;
"Pray for my peace!" "Thy faith companion thee!"
He heard behind him; and the burning sands
Received him, the deep silence, and the sky.
Far on one hand he left the blanchèd lands
Of the death valley, hollow and malign,
That rolled its lost horizons to the South.
Westward he trailed the rock-bound desert route,
Where narrowest, like a gulf, the great chott ran,
And crossed it, and on level reaches came,
Steeped in the sun, lapped by the bathing blue,
The kingdom of the sands; no life was there,
But shadowless, majestic, nature's power
Moulded her image of the earth and sky,