A Desert Night

Awake! Awake! Awake!Stand to your arms like men;For the muffled tread of ten thousand feet,The roll of wheels, and redoubled beatOf changing hoofs, are abroad on the night.Awake!Hark! how it comes again.The keen night-air whispers light,'Awake!'••••••••• Asleep! Asleep! Asleep!Deaf and dumb to the sounds of life,Sand in his eyes and mouth and ears,But awake to the secret of manifold years,Under the broad desert-sheet he liesAsleep!Lost are all sounds of strife,Dead as the body that dies.We weep!