Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE STAB by WILL WALLACE HARNEY

First Line: ON THE ROAD, THE LONELY ROAD
Last Line: THAT A DEAD MAN LAY ON THE ROAD.

ON the road, the lonely road,
Under the cold white moon,
Under the ragged trees he strode;
He whistled and shifted his weary load --
Whistled a foolish tune.

There was a step timed with his own,
A figure that stooped and bowed --
A cold, white blade that gleamed and shone,
Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown --
And the moon went behind a cloud.

But the moon came out so broad and good,
The barn-fowl woke and crowed;
Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood,
And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood,
That a dead man lay on the road.



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