DREAM AND DEED

All day long I am fashioning crowns,

Crowns of great price for you!

What do I fashion them of?

Opals and pearls of the dew,

Diamonds of old renowns,

Blazing rubies of love,

And gold from the heart of the golden sun, brought down by a sunset djinn,—

Brighter gold, purer gold than ever gleamed under Andvari's fin!

All day long I am tempering swords,

Swords for my thought to wield!

What is the steel I true,

And how is their splendor annealed?

High dreams, to slay evil hordes,

And flaming thoughts of you

That light my dark heart from their white-hot forge — a glory to take one's breath —

Like the dove-gray, rose-faint veils of faith you wind round the skull of death!

But when was a sword or a crown

For praise or for honor meet,

When the truth transcends, and sees

Knighthood kneeling at your feet?

In the darkness they go down!

There is better trust in these:

Set teeth, and the furious will to strive through the dust of the world for you;

The hardly builded house of deeds each day, that must prove me true!