| NEVER mind the day we left, or the day the women clung to us; | |
| All we need now is the last way they looked at us. | |
| Never mind the twelve men there amid the cheering— | |
| Twelve men or one man, ’t will soon be all the same; | |
| For this is what we know: we are five men together, | 5 |
| Five left o’ twelve men to find the golden river. | |
| |
| Far we came to find it out, but the place was here for all of us; | |
| Far, far we came, and here we have the last of us. | |
| We that were the front men, we that would be early, | |
| We that had the faith, and the triumph in our eyes: | 10 |
| We that had the wrong road, twelve men together,— | |
| Singing when the devil sang to find the golden river. | |
| |
| Say the gleam was not for us, but never say we doubted it; | |
| Say the wrong road was right before we followed it. | |
| We that were the front men, fit for all forage,— | 15 |
| Say that while we dwindle we are front men still; | |
| For this is what we know tonight: we’re starving here together— | |
| Starving on the wrong road to find the golden river. | |
| |
| Wrong, we say, but wait a little: hear him in the corner there; | |
| He knows more than we, and he’ll tell us if we listen there— | 20 |
| He that fought the snow-sleep less than all the others | |
| Stays awhile yet, and he knows where he stays: | |
| Foot and hand a frozen clout, brain a freezing feather, | |
| Still he’s here to talk with us and to the golden river. | |
| |
| “Flow,” he says, “and flow along, but you cannot flow away from us; | 25 |
| All the world’s ice will never keep you far from us; | |
| Every man that heeds your call takes the way that leads him— | |
| The one way that’s his way, and lives his own life: | |
| Starve or laugh, the game goes on, and on goes the river; | |
| Gold or no, they go their way—twelve men together. | 30 |
| |
| “Twelve,” he says, “who sold their shame for a lure you call too fair for them— | |
| You that laugh and flow to the same word that urges them: | |
| Twelve who left the old town shining in the sunset, | |
| Left the weary street and the small safe days: | |
| Twelve who knew but one way out, wide the way or narrow: | 35 |
| Twelve who took the frozen chance and laid their lives on yellow. | |
| |
| “Flow by night and flow by day, nor ever once be seen by them; | |
| Flow, freeze, and flow, till time shall hide the bones of them; | |
| Laugh and wash their names away, leave them all forgotten, | |
| Leave the old town to crumble where it sleeps; | 40 |
| Leave it there as they have left it, shining in the valley,— | |
| Leave the town to crumble down and let the women marry. | |
| |
| “Twelve of us or five,” he says, “we know the night is on us now: | |
| Five while we last, and we may as well be thinking now: | |
| Thinking each his own thought, knowing, when the light comes, | 45 |
| Five left or none left, the game will not be lost. | |
| Crouch or sleep, we go the way, the last way together: | |
| Five or none, the game goes on, and on goes the river. | |
| |
| “For after all that we have done and all that we have failed to do, | |
| Life will be life and a world will have its work to do: | 50 |
| Every man who follows us will heed in his own fashion | |
| The calling and the warning and the friends who do not know: | |
| Each will hold an icy knife to punish his heart’s lover, | |
| And each will go the frozen way to find the golden river.” | |
| |
| There you hear him, all he says, and the last we’ll ever get from him. | 55 |
| Now he wants to sleep, and that will be the best for him. | |
| Let him have his own way—no, you needn’t shake him— | |
| Your own turn will come, so let the man sleep. | |
| For this is what we know: we are stalled here together— | |
| Hands and feet and hearts of us, to find the golden river. | 60 |
| |
| And there’s a quicker way than sleep? … Never mind the looks of him: | |
| All he needs now is a finger on the eyes of him. | |
| You there on the left hand, reach a little over— | |
| Shut the stars away, or he’ll see them all night: | |
| He’ll see them all night and he’ll see them all tomorrow, | 65 |
| Crawling down the frozen sky, cold and hard and yellow. | |
| |
| Won’t you move an inch or two—to keep the stars away from him? | |
| —No, he won’t move, and there’s no need of asking him. | |
| Never mind the twelve men, never mind the women; | |
| Three while we last, we’ll let them all go; | 70 |
| And we’ll hold our thoughts north while we starve here together, | |
| Looking each his own way to find the golden river. | |
