Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STRANGE MULTITUDE by JOHN FREEMAN

First Line: BECAUSE THE WAY WAS LONG
Last Line: OUT OF A DARK SEA UNSUBDUED.
Subject(s): NATURE;
BECAUSE the way was long,
The day was long,
And shadows small upon the road
And dead-and-alive the river flowed
Thin willow branches under,
And talk hung slow and silent song;

Because the heat-waves danced
And dazed eyes glanced
Half blind from rustling field to field,
While heavily the path we heel'd
Leaving the lazy river,
And knew nor cared whereon we chanced;

It seemed, there on the hill,
The world fell still.
From the wide hemisphere all round
No beast, no bird, no stir of sound—
All hushed yet all uneasy.
Silence so full I feared to spill.

O then for that far bubbling,
Youth's note untroubling,
Simple and single changing note
Quick poured from a dreaming throat;
Or clear belfry music
Far falling and in falling doubling.

It seemed, there on the hill,
Where all hung still,
Awaked wild music of a multitude;
And far fond melodies, renewed
From ages long forgotten,
Did from my heart's brimmed fountain spill;

And flowing all around
Fed that harsh ground
With flowers and trembling leaf and shade
That to the minging music played;
And the winds fingered
Invisible strings to aery sound.

With voices well I knew,
Light, soft as dew,
Came thundered notes I had not known,
Far-thundered, low, of solemn tone,
And shrill wild calling
From flushing altar'd avenue;

And secret lonely sighing
Of hopes undying,
Piercing the liquid fall of flutes,
Clangour of drums, Love's jarring lutes;
Wrangling, commingling,
Note to note, dust unto dust replying.

O hidden strange multitude
Out of death renewed!
From my heart and the centuries
Buried in me your songs and sighs
Spring as a tempest
Out of a dark sea unsubdued.



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