_The Question:_
Minstrel with a song
On the wide, white road--
Loafing with the lilies of the June--
What makes you so strong
Underneath your load,
Lilting such a joyous little tune?
Tell me, little brother,
What I want to know--
Why your lips are tremulous with joy--
Why you, like a mother,
Soothe and love me so,
As she used to when I was a boy.
All the way behind
Fades into a dream
Hideous with faces in the gloom;
Phantom-terrors blind
With a lurid gleam
Glowing from Gehenna-gulfs of doom!
_The Answer:_
Comrade, I will tell you
How I laugh and sing,
Loafing with the lilies by the way.
Comrade, what befell you
That you missed the King
Crowned with purple pansies of the day?
Brother, Him I know--
Lord of earth and star--
Find Him with the ferns beside the pool;
All the splendours grow
Dim and fade afar,
When He walks at shut of day and cool.
Fear not to address Him--
Cosmic-Comrade He--
Lonely for the love He wants from you!
Up at once and bless Him--
Lift a jubilee
With the host of loyal hearts and true!