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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PRAIRIE PATH, by                    
First Line: Upon the brown and frozen sod
Last Line: The fields of immortality
Subject(s): Prairies; Plains


UPON the brown and frozen sod
The wind's wet fingers shake the rain;
The bare shrubs shiver in the blast
Against the dripping window-pane.
Inside, strange shadows haunt the room,
The flickering firelights rise and fall,
And make I know not what strange shapes
Upon the pale gray parlor wall.

I feel, but do not see these things, --
My soul stands under other skies;
There is a wondrous radiance comes
Between my eyelids and my eyes.
I seem to pull down on my feet
God's gentian flowers, as on I pass
Through a great prairie, still and sweet
With growing vines and blowing grass.

And then -- ah! whence can he have come? --
I feel a small hand touching mine;
Our voices first are like the breath
That sways the grass and scented vine.
But clearer grow the childish words
Of Egypt and of Hindostan;
And Archie's telling me again
Where he will go when he's a man.

The smell of pines is strangely blent
With sandal-wood, and broken spice,
And cores of calamus; the flowers
Grow into gems of wondrous price.
We sit down in the grass and dream;
His face grows strangely bright and fair;
I think it is the amber gleam
Of sunset in his pale gold hair.

But while I look I see a path
Across the prairie to the light;
And Archie, with his small, bare feet,
Has almost passed beyond my sight.
Upon my heart there falls a smile,
Upon my ears a soft adieu:
I see the glory in his face,
And know his dreams have all come true.

Some day I shall go hence and home, --
We shall go hence, I mean to say;
And as we pass the shoals of time,
"My brother," I shall, pleading, say,
"There was upon the prairie wide
A spot so dear to thee and me,
I fain would see it ere we walk
The fields of Immortality."





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