Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PILGRIMAGE, by LAURA CAMPBELL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PILGRIMAGE, by                    
First Line: I will tread on the golden grass of my bright field
Last Line: In the glow of the early day; and the east is red.
Subject(s): Beauty; Faith; Immortality; Nature - Religious Aspects; Pilgrimages & Pilgrims; Travel; Walking; Belief; Creed; Journeys; Trips


I will tread on the golden grass of my bright field,
When the passion-star has paled, when the night has fled;
I will tread on the golden grass of my bright field,
In the glow of the early day when the east is red.

In my bright field a broken beech-tree leans;
And a giant boulder stands by a black-burned wood;
And a rough-built, falling wall and a rotting door
Sear, like a scar, the spot where a house once stood.

My eyes are mute on the white edge of the dawn,
My feet fall swift and bare upon the way . . .
The long soft hills grow black against the sky,
The great wood moves, unfolds; the high trees sway.

The worn road stretches thin, and the low hedge stirs,
And a strong old bridge looms frail o'er a ghostly stream;
And a white flower turns and breathes, and turns again . . .
Does it live, as I live? Does it wake, as I waked, from a dream?

(How merciless is the dawn! how poignant the hush in my soul!
How changeless the changing sky! how fearful that wild bird's call!
I hear the quick suck of his wing, the push of his breast — he is gone!
How swift is an æon of time! how endless, beginningless, all!)

I tread on the golden grass of my bright field;
The sun's on a hundred hills; the night has fled;
I tread on the golden grass of my bright field
In the glow of the early day; and the east is red.





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