Page:An epic of women and other poems (IA epicofwomenother00osha).pdf/111

Or hast thou, rather, for that serpent's task
Thou didst accomplish in thy woman-mask,
  Some perfect inconceivable reward
Of serpent's slimy pleasure?—all the thing
  Thou didst beseech thy master, who is Lord
Of those accursèd hosts that creep and sting,
To give thee for the spoil thou shouldest bring?

He was a goodly spoil for thee to win!
—Men's souls and lives were wholly dark with sin;
  And so God's world was changed with wars and gold,
No part of it was holy; save, maybe,
  The desert and the ocean as of old:—
But such a spotless way of life had he,
His soul was as the desert or the sea.

I think he had not heard of the far towns;
Nor of the deeds of men, nor of kings' crowns;
  Before the thought of God took hold of him,
As he was sitting dreaming in the calm
  Of one first noon, upon the desert's rim,
Beneath the tall fair shadows of the palm,
All overcome with some strange inward balm.