The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (Markham, Pyle, 1900)/At the Meeting of Seven Valleys

1694602The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems — At the Meeting of Seven Valleys1900Edwin Markham

At the Meeting of Seven Valleys

At the meeting of seven valleys in the west,
I came upon a host of silent souls,
Seated beside still waters on the grass.
It was a place of memories and tears—
Terrible tears. I rested in a wood,
And there the bird that mourns for Itys sang—
Itys that touched the tears of all the world.
But climbing onward toward the purple peaks,
I passed, on silent feet, white multitudes,
Beyond the reach of peering memories,
Lying asleep upon the scented banks,
Their bodies burning with celestial fire.
A mighty awe came on me at the thought—
The strangeness of the beatific sleep,
The vision of God, the mystic bread of rest.