ARMED

Give me to-night to hide me in the shade,

That neither moon nor star

May see the secret place where I am laid,

Nor watch me from afar.

Let not the dark its prying ghosts employ

To peer on my retreat,

And see the fragments of my broken toy

Lie scattered at my feet.

I fashioned it, that idol of my own,

Of metal strange and bright;

I made my toy a god — I raised a throne

To honour my delight.

This haunted byway of the grove was lit

With lamps my hand had trimmed,

Before the altar in the midst of it

I kept their flame undimmed.

My steps turned ever to the hidden shrine;

Aware or unaware,

My soul dwelt only in that spot divine,

And now a wreck lies there.

Give me to-night to weep — when dawn is spread

Beyond the heavy trees,

And in the east the day is heralded

By cloud-wrought companies,

I shall have gathered up my heart's desire,

Broken, destroyed, adored,

And from its splinters, in a deathless fire,

I shall have forged a sword.