TOO well they saw the road where they must tread
Was shrouded in a misty winding sheet,
Among whose strangling coils their souls might meet
Death, and delaying not to go, they said
Farewell to hope, to dear tasks left undone,
To well-loved faces and to length of days.—
So came they to the parting of the ways,
A year agone, and saw no way but one.
Others, and they were many, watched them go
But turned not from the pleasant path of ease,
With hedges full of flowers, and fields of sheep.
Their hearts waxed gross, battening on braver woe
And their eyes heavy.—God, for such as these
No trump avails but Thine to break their sleep!