FAR ALTARS 



ioned to speak what shapes the wind takes, 

 the motion whereby mists climb after the 

 sun out of ravines, or how the tropic 

 orchids lift at daybreak among their fra- 

 grant shadows wings of ivory and fawn 

 that drooped against ferny trunks. 



Many days must bloom and fade be- 

 tween you and the sound of human voices 

 before, in the wilderness, there can be 

 surrender to the giant arms that forever 

 hold the body, and to the spirit, supreme 

 and unemotional, that has sped beyond 

 the utmost outposts the mind ever reached. 

 But after the homecoming when the con- 

 fused echoes of a swarming, blind humanity 

 are lost in the exalted quiet of wide 

 spaces the vast impersonality of woods 

 and plains, swamps, hills, and sea, takes 

 on a tenderness more deep than lies in 

 human gift and a glorious hostility that 

 calls to combat without grudge or motive, 

 ennobling because it gives no mercy; 

 challenges alike the craft of man and the 

 strength of the hills. 



The exuberant fancy of a less earnest 

 day made air and fire the dwellings of 

 creatures formed like ourselves, and, 

 though immortal, shod with lightning, 



[99] 



