Page:Von Heidenstam - Sweden's laureate, selected poems of Verner von Heidenstam (1919).djvu/88

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
"Thoughts in Loneliness"
Of iron and wood thou shalt straight be bound!"
I hardly should take the trouble
To look up and glance around.

If the Lord of the World from an evening cloud
Should thunder "Obey!" with menacings loud,
I would answer: "Lower your voice, God, pray,
And perhaps I shall hear what you say!"

My steed so strong,
Not yet do I long
For my stuffy home and the stove.
Keep on for an hour, for twain maybe!
And you purchase for me
Two hours of the respite I love.

X.

Helpless Animals.

If I should have a friend, one only friend,
And that friend slew a helpless beast and gave
His hand, to which of late mine warmly clave,
Though I still longed an answering grasp to lend,
My hand with his I never more would blend.

If he lay sick, the friend who had the heart
To slay a helpless beast, and felt the smart
Of thirst, and I was sitting there beside him
On his last night, no drink would I provide him,
But fill and drain my glass, and so depart.

84