A Man Was Drawing Near To Me

On that gray night of mournful drone,     A part from aught to hear, to see,     I dreamt not that from shires unknown     In gloom, alone,     By Halworthy,     A man was drawing near to me.     I'd no concern at anything,     No sense of coming pull-heart play;     Yet, under the silent outspreading     Of even's wing     Where Otterham lay,     A man was riding up my way.     I thought of nobody not of one,     But only of trifles legends, ghosts     Though, on the moorland dim and dun     That travellers shun     About these coasts,     The man had passed Tresparret Posts.     There was no light at all inland,     Only the seaward pharos-fire,     Nothing to let me understand     That hard at hand     By Hennett Byre     The man was getting nigh and nigher.     There was a rumble at the door,     A draught disturbed the drapery,     And but a minute passed before,     With gaze that bore     My destiny,     The man revealed himself to me.