Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/245
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The Hosts of Sleep.
209
CXLV.
The Hosts of Sleep.
Out of a gold and purple dreamland streaming,
The dark-eyed troops of sleep come swift and silent,
Fling from their thin hands drowsy influences,
Marching to take
The battled burg of Freewill.
The dark-eyed troops of sleep come swift and silent,
Fling from their thin hands drowsy influences,
Marching to take
The battled burg of Freewill.
The unleashed thoughts run gamesome in the country,
Each racing other, playing, singing, dancing;
Some feebly tilling tangled plots of woodland,
Dark, remote,
Far out from the city.
Each racing other, playing, singing, dancing;
Some feebly tilling tangled plots of woodland,
Dark, remote,
Far out from the city.
Some work so hard, and others play so madly,
They do not hear the rustle and the whisper
Of the dark forces thronging out of dreamland,
Silent, swift,
Breathing scouts before them.
They do not hear the rustle and the whisper
Of the dark forces thronging out of dreamland,
Silent, swift,
Breathing scouts before them.
Some are taken, flooded by the vast wave—
Half-thought thoughts, forgotten in the morning,
Workers or players, singers blythe and dancers,
Prone, cold,
Motionless for ever.
Half-thought thoughts, forgotten in the morning,
Workers or players, singers blythe and dancers,
Prone, cold,
Motionless for ever.
Some catch a distant warning of the army,
And flee swiftly, scurry to the city;
Safe till to-morrow, safe within the ramparts;
Loud, shrill,
The clarions bawl the warning.
And flee swiftly, scurry to the city;
Safe till to-morrow, safe within the ramparts;
Loud, shrill,
The clarions bawl the warning.