The Ancient Track

Written 1929

        
		There was no hand to hold me back
		That night I found the ancient track
		Over the hill and strained to see
		The fields that teased my memory.
		This tree that wall - I knew them well,
		And all the roofs and orchards fell
		Familiarly upon my mind
		As from a past not far behind.
		I knew what shadows would be cast
		As the late moon came up at last
		From back of Zaman's Hill, and how
		The vale would shine three hours from now.
		And when the path grew steep and high,
		And seemed to end against the sky,
		I had no fear of what might rest
		Beyond that silhouetted crest.
		Straight on I walked, while all the night
		Grew pale with phosphorescent light,
		And wall and farmhouse gable glowed
		Unearthly by the climbing road.
		There was the milestone that I knew -
		"Two miles to Dunwich" - now the view
		Of distant spire and roofs would dawn
		With ten more upward paces gone...
		The was no hand to hold me back
		That night I found the ancient track,
		And reached the crest to see outspread
		A valley of the lost and dead;
		And over Zaman's Hill the horn
		Of a malignant moon was born,
		To light the weeds and vines that grew
		On ruined walls I never knew.
		The fox-fire glowed in field and bog,
		And unknown waters spewed a fog
		Whose curling talons mocked the thought
		That I had ever known this spot.
		Too well I saw from the mad scene
		That my loved past had never been -
		Nor was I now upon the trail
		Descending to that long dead vale.
		Around was fog - ahead, the spray
		Of star-streams in the Milky Way...
		There was no hand to hold me back
		That night I found the ancient track.