A WALL impregnable surrounds The Town wherein I dwell; No man may scale it and it has Two gates that guard it well. One opened long ago, and I A vagrant soul, slipped through, Bewildered and forgetting all The wider world I knew. I love the Town, the narrow ways, The common, yellow sun, The handclasp and the jesting and The work that must be done! I shun the other gate that stands Beyond the crowded mart— I need but glance that way to feel Cold fingers on my heart! It stands alone and somberly Within a shaded place, And every man who turns that way Has quiet on his face. And every man must rise and leave His pleasant homely door To vanish through this silent gate And enter in no more— Yet—once—I saw its opening throw A brighter light about And glimpsed strange glory on the brow Of someone passing out! I wonder if Outside may be One fair and great demesne Where both gates open, careless of The Town that lies between? |