1868

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH

by Lewis Carroll

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH -

HARK said the dying man, and sighed,

To that complaining tone-

Like sprite condemned, each eventide,

To walk the world alone.

At sunset, when the air is still,

I hear it creep from yonder hill:

It breathes upon me, dead and chill,

A moment, and is gone. -

My son, it minds me of a day

Left half a life behind,

That I have prayed to put away

For ever from my mind.

But bitter memory will not die:

It haunts my soul when none is nigh:

I hear its whisper in the sigh

Of that complaining wind. -

And now in death my soul is fain

To tell the tale of fear

That hidden in my breast hath lain

Through many a weary year:

Yet time would fail to utter all-

The evil spells that held me thrall,

And thrust my life from fall to fall,

Thou needest not to hear. -

The spells that bound me with a chain,

Sin's stern behests to do,

Till Pleasure's self, invoked in vain,

A heavy burden grew-

Till from my spirit's fevered eye,

A hunted thing, I seemed to fly

Through the dark woods that underlie

Yon mountain-range of blue. -

Deep in those woods I found a vale

No sunlight visiteth,

Nor star, nor wandering moonbeam pale;

Where never comes the breath

Of summer-breeze- there in mine ear,

Even as I lingered half in fear,

I heard a whisper, cold and clear,

"That is the gate of Death. -

"O bitter is it to abide

In weariness alway:

At dawn to sigh for eventide,

At eventide for day.

Thy noon hath fled: thy sun hath shone:

The brightness of thy day is gone:

What need to lag and linger on

Till life be cold and gray? -

"O well," it said, "beneath yon pool,

In some still cavern deep,

The fevered brain might slumber cool,

The eyes forget to weep:

Within that goblet's mystic rim

Are draughts of healing, stored for him

Whose heart is sick, whose sight is dim,

Who prayeth but to sleep!" -

The evening-breeze went moaning by,

Like mourner for the dead,

And stirred, with shrill complaining sigh,

The tree-tops overhead:

My guardian-angel seemed to stand

And mutely wave a warning hand-

With sudden terror all unmanned,

I turned myself and fled! -

A cottage-gate stood open wide:

Soft fell the dying ray

On two fair children, side by side,

That rested from their play-

Together bent the earnest head,

As ever and anon they read

From one dear Book: the words they said

Come back to me to-day. -

Like twin cascades on mountain-stair

Together wandered down

The ripples of the golden hair,

The ripples of the brown:

While, through the tangled silken haze,

Blue eyes looked forth in eager gaze,

More starlike than the gems that blaze

About a monarch's crown. -

My son, there comes to each an hour

When sinks the spirit's pride-

When weary hands forget their power

The strokes of death to guide:

In such a moment, warriors say,

A word the panic-rout may stay,

A sudden charge redeem the day

And turn the living tide. -