III. BOOT AND SADDLE Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! away! Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew Until he reached the mound. Then off there flung, in smiling joy, And held himself erect Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you'd By just his horse's mane, a boy: You hardly could suspect So tight he kept his lips compressed, 15 20 There are flashes struck from midnights, 25 There are fire-flames noondays kindle, Whereby piled-up honors perish, Whereby swollen ambitions dwindle, While just this or that poor impulse, Which for once had play unstifled, Seems the sole work of a lifetime That away the rest have trifled. Doubt you if, in some such moment, Here an age 'tis resting merely, While the true end, sole and single, It stops here for is, - this love-way, With some other soul to mingle? 30 35 40 |