LET ME GO DOWN TO DUST
Solo 1: Let me go down to dust and dreams
Gently, O Lord, with never a fear
Of death beyond the day that is done;
All: In such a manner as beseems
A kinsman of the wild, a son
Of stoic earth whose race is run.
Solo 1: Let me go down as any dear,
Who, broken by a desperate flight,
Sinks down to slumber for the night—
Dumbly serene in certitude,
That it will rise again at dawn,
All: Buoyant, refreshed of limb, renewed,
And confident that it will trill
To-morrow to it nuzzling fawn,
To the bugle-notes of elk upon the hill.
Solo 1: Let me go down to dreams and dust
Gently, O Lord, with quiet trust
All: And the fortitude that marks a child
Of earth, a kinsman of the wild.
Solo 1: Let me go down as any doe
That nods upon its ferny bed,
And, lulled to slumber by the flow
Of talking water, the muffled brawl
Of far cascading water all,
At last lets down its weary head
Deep in the brookmints in the glen;
All: And under the starry-candled sky,
With never the shadow of a sigh,
Gives its worn body back to earth again.