Madison Julius Cawein

At the Ferry

Oh, dim and wan came in the dawn,
 And gloomy closed the day;
The killdee whistled among the weeds,
The heron flapped in the river reeds,
 And the snipe piped far away.

At dawn she stood - her dark gray hood
 Flung back - in the ferry-boat;
Sad were the eyes that watched him ride,
Her raider love, from the riverside,
 His kiss on her mouth and throat.

Like some wild spell the twilight fell,
 And black the tempest came;
The heavens seemed filled with the warring dead,
Whose batteries opened overhead
 With thunder and with flame.

At night again in the wind and rain,
 She toiled at the ferry oar;
For she heard a voice in the night and storm,
And it seemed that her lover's shadowy form
 Beckoned her to the shore.

And swift to save she braved the wave,
 And reached the shore and found
His riderless horse, with head hung low,
A blur of blood on the saddle-bow,
 And the empty night around.