A Spring Harvest/"Wind of the Darkness"

by Geoffrey Bache Smith

"WIND OF THE DARKNESS"

Wind of the darkness, breathing round us,
 Wind from the never-resting sea,
Lo, you have loosed the cords that bound us,
 Lo, you have set our spirits free:

Free to take wings, like the sea-bird lonely
 Beating hardily up the wind:
Fixed are his eyes on the waters only,
 Never a glance for the land behind.

Wind of the darkness, breathing round us,
 Wind from the never-resting sea,
Was it the old gods' voice that found us
 Here, where the bars of prison be?

From the far isle that neither knoweth
 Change of season, nor time's increase,
Where is plenty, and no man soweth:
 Calling to strife that shall end in peace.