MODERN BOHEMIAN POETRY
55
And like branches that together are entwined, the boundless skies
Quiver in the morning beams that from the cosmic forest rise.
"The Hands."
RESPONSES
With a curse we are laden, and 'mid our longing's loftiest flight,
By the burden of earth we are thralled, and steeped in our blood's dim night.
"Ye are mighty and know not death, and your souls where mysteries throng,
Bear in them suns and spring-tides, and vintages endless long."
In the silence of cosmos, the focus of stars that blood-red wane,
Lonely we tarry, as tho' 'mid the watch-fires of foes in a chain.
"By the armour of heavily-armed ye are burdened, and into the strife,
Ye are chosen that ye may give freedom to all on the earth that have life."
