The Bright Rider

All the night through I drank     Sleep like water or cool cider;     Life flowed over and I sank     Down below the night of clouds....     Then on a pale horse was rider     Through long brushing woods     Where the owl in silence broods,     Quavers, and is quiet again;     Where the grass dark and rank     Breathes on the still air its rain.     Rain and dark and green and sound     Closing slowly round     Swept me as I rode,     And rode on until I came     Where a white cold river flowed     Under woods thin and bare     In the moon's long candle flame.     Through the woods the wind crawled     Leviathan, and here and there     Branches creaked and old winds howled     Sick for home.     All the night I saw the river,     As a girl that sees beside her     Love, between fear and fear     Riding, and is dumb.     The white horse turned to cross the river,     But the waters like a wall     Rose and hung dark over all;     And as they fell the river wider     Wider grew, and sky was bare     Save of the sick candle's stare.     Death the divider     Glittered cold and dark and deep     Under banks of fear.     But that rider     Trembling, bright, rode on,     Trembling and bright rode on     Through green lanes of sleep.