Treason

He ran unto us in the little field,
Out from the bordering trees sprang grimacing:
He swung his hand
To the darkened land,
And when he tried to speak to us he squealed;
His voice curled from him like a frightened thing
That had no sense, he fell down on the ground
Laughing and weeping, then, uncouthly grim,
He told a tale to us who stood around;
And when his tale was told we fled from him.

"O, we are lost," said he, "there is no hope,
I say there is not any hope at all;
We are betrayed,
The prayers we prayed,
Our very tears, our love, our hands that grope
Tremblingly skyward, and our knees that fall
Down to adore them, all our hopes and fears,
Our tremblings and our raptures are a joke,
Poor follies for the laughter and the sneers
Of those black demons and the shining folk.

"I saw the radiant gods, a multitude
Who flew down quickly to a place I know;
A meadow fair,
I will not tell you where:
And from behind the moon a blacker brood
Drove steeply down to where the gods below,
(A white assembly; circling vast around,)
Stood rank on rank in orderly array,
And in the center on a higher ground
Was one more beautiful than tongue can say.

"I cried — alas, the good ones do not see
These demons come to take them in a snare —
My cudgel I
Heaved shoulder-high
And ran to aid them, ran so furiously
My heart nigh broke, in running to get there,
Nigh broke I say in pity as I ran:
My heart ! ah, gods, what laughter ye had made
Of this poor foolish loving-blinded man
If he had died in running to your aid.

"But I was late, ere I could reach the place
The demons had descended to the ground :
Each pointed wing
A moment fluttering,
And then the demons ran to an embrace
With those white-shining ones, and made a sound
Of joy and brotherhood, and gripped each hand,
And laughed for merriment and danced for glee,
And shouted salutation band to band,
And held and kissed each other lovingly.

"After a little time I stole away,
I scarce could steal away for crazy pain:
I heard them plan
Of time and space and man,
And what to do each in a different way
And far apart, and when they'd meet again.
Alas, we are betrayed ! the devils are
Blood-brothers of the gods, where shall we see
But in each other now a guiding star?
Ah comrades, do ye also fly from me?"

The Hill of Vision [1912]