The Journey.

By George MacDonald

I. Hark, the rain is on my roof! Every murmur, through the dark, Stings me with a dull reproof Like a half-extinguished spark. Me! ah me! how came I here, Wide awake and wide alone! Caught within a net of fear, All my dreams undreamed and gone! I will rise; I will go forth. Better dare the hideous night, Better face the freezing north Than be still, where is no light! Black wind rushing round me now, Sown with arrowy points of rain! Gone are there and then and now-- I am here, and so is pain! Dead in dreams the gloomy street! I will out on open roads. Eager grow my aimless feet-- Onward, onward something goads! I will take the mountain path, Beard the storm within its den; Know the worst of this dim wrath Harassing the souls of men. Chasm 'neath chasm! rock piled on rock! Roots, and crumbling earth, and stones! Hark, the torrent's thundering shock! Hark, the swaying pine tree's groans! Ah! I faint, I fall, I die, Sink to nothingness away!-- Lo, a streak upon the sky! Lo, the opening eye of day! II. Mountain summits lift their snows O'er a valley green and low; And a winding pathway goes Guided by the river's flow; And a music rises ever, As of peace and low content, From the pebble-paven river Like an odour upward sent. And the sound of ancient harms Moans behind, the hills among, Like the humming of the swarms That unseen the forest throng. Now I meet the shining rain From a cloud with sunny weft; Now against the wind I strain, Sudden burst from mountain cleft. Now a sky that hath a moon Staining all the cloudy white With a faded rainbow--soon Lost in deeps of heavenly night! Now a morning clear and soft, Amber on the purple hills; Warm blue day of summer, oft Cooled by wandering windy rills! Joy to travel thus along With the universe around! Every creature of the throng, Every sight and scent and sound Homeward speeding, beauty-laden, Beelike, to its hive, my soul! Mine the eye the stars are made in! Mine the heart of Nature's whole! III. Hills retreating on each hand Slowly sink into the plain; Solemn through the outspread land Rolls the river to the main. In the glooming of the night Something through the dusky air Doubtful glimmers, faintly white, But I know not what or where. Is it but a chalky ridge Bared of sod, like tree of bark? Or a river-spanning bridge Miles away into the dark? Or the foremost leaping waves Of the everlasting sea, Where the Undivided laves Time with its eternity? Is it but an eye-made sight, In my brain a fancied gleam? Or a faint aurora-light From the sun's tired smoking team? In the darkness it is gone, Yet with every step draws nigh; Known shall be the thing unknown When the morning climbs the sky! Onward, onward through the night Matters it I cannot see? I am moving in a might Dwelling in the dark and me! End or way I cannot lose-- Grudge to rest, or fear to roam; All is well with wanderer whose Heart is travelling hourly home. IV. Joy! O joy! the dawning sea Answers to the dawning sky, Foretaste of the coming glee When the sun will lord it high! See the swelling radiance growing To a dazzling glory-might! See the shadows gently going 'Twixt the wave-tops wild with light! Hear the smiting billows clang! See the falling billows lean Half a watery vault, and hang Gleaming with translucent green, Then in thousand fleeces fall, Thundering light upon the strand!-- This the whiteness which did call Through the dusk, across the land! See, a boat! Out, out we dance! Fierce blasts swoop upon my sail! What a terrible expanse-- Tumbling hill and heaving dale! Stayless, helpless, lost I float, Captive to the lawless free! But a prison is my boat! Oh, for petrel-wings to flee! Look below: each watery whirl Cast in beauty's living mould! Look above: each feathery curl Dropping crimson, dropping gold!-- Oh, I tremble in the flush Of the everlasting youth! Love and awe together rush: I am free in God, the Truth!