I8 The Kuan's Canticles Poem by Robert Kirkland Kernighan

I hush the wail along my trail
Past hamlet, home and hollow,

While on I go with noiseless flow
And robin red-breasts follow.

And like a psalm, benign and calm,

I blight the brow of winter ;
I snap the chains that hold the reins

The fields of ice I splinter ;
And like the tide I run and ride,

The bated winds I swallow ;
Triumphant still past rock and rill,

And robin red-breasts follow.

A wing of light from night to night

My perfumed chariot passes,
And I can hear in meadows clear

The whispering of the grasses ;
With joyous face I onward race

Past hopeless height and hollow,
While swift and strong with simple song

My robin red-breasts follow.

The north wind bleeds the rustling reeds

The happy news is telling,
And I can hear in forests near

The juicy leaf -buds swelling ;
I onward rush without the thrush,

The red bird or the swallow,
You need n't mind, for close behind

My robin red-breasts follow.