I br br In silence, solitude and stern surmise br    His faith was tried and proved commensurate br    With life and death. The stone-blind eyes of Fate br Perpetually stared into his eyes, br Yet to the hazard of the enterprise br    He brought his soul, expectant and elate, br    And challenged, like a champion at the Gate, br Death's undissuadable austerities. br And thus, full-armed in all that Truth reprieves br    From dissolution, he beheld the breath br    Of daybreak flush his thought's exalted ways, br While, like Dodona's sad, prophetic leaves, br    Round him the scant, supreme, momentous days br    Trembled and murmured in the wind of Death. br br II br br There moved a Presence always by his side, br    With eyes of pleasure and passion and wild tears, br    And on her lips the murmur of many years, br And in her hair the chaplets of a bride; br And with him, hour by hour, came one beside, br    Scatheless of Time and Time's vicissitude, br    Whose lips, perforce of endless solitude, br Were silent and whose eyes were blind and wide.