from
the Ceremony for a Deceased Brother -
An old man going a lone highway
came at the evening, cold and gray,
to a chasm vast and deep and wide
through which was flowing a sullen tide;
the old man crossed in the twilight dim,
the sullen stream had no fear for him.
But he turned when safe on the other side
and built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“you are wasting your time in building here;
your journey will end with the ending day.
You never again will pass this way.
You’ve crossed the chasm deep and wide;
why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head—
“Good friend, in the path that I have come,” he
said,
“there followeth after me today,
a youth whose feet must pass this way;
this chasm that has been naught to me
to that fair haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim—
good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”
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