Poetry Archives

You who have lived in the land,
    You who have trusted the trail,
You who are strong to withstand,
    You who are swift to assail:
        Songs have I sung to beguile,
            Vintage of desperate years,
        Hard as a harlot’s smile,
            Bitter as unshed tears.

Little of joy or mirth,
    Little of ease I sing;
Sagas of men of earth
    Humanly suffering,
        Such as you all have done;
            Savagely faring forth,
        Sons of the midnight sun,
            Argonauts of the North.

Far in the land God forgot
    Glimmers the lure of your trail;
Still in your lust are you taught
    Even to win is to fail.
        Still you must follow and fight
            Under the vampire wing;
        There in the long, long night
            Hoping and vanquishing.

Husbandman of the Wild,
    Reaping a barren gain;
Scourged by desire, reconciled
    Unto disaster and pain;
        These, my songs, are for you,
            You who are seared with the brand.
        God knows I have tried to be true;
            Please God you will understand.