The Grey Company

O THE GREY, grey company Of the pallid dawn! O the ghostly faces Ashen-like and drawn! The Lord’s lone sentinels Dotted down the years— The little grey company Before the pioneers! Dreaming of Utopias Ere the time was ripe, They awoke to scorning, To jeering and to strife. Dreaming of millenniums In a world of wars, They awoke to shudder At a flaming Mars. Never was a Luther But a Huss was first— A fountain unregarded In the primal thirst. Never was a Newton Crowned and honoured well, But first a lone Galileo Wasted in a cell. In each other’s faces Looked the pioneers;— Drank the wine of courage All their battle years. For their weary sowing Through the world wide, Green they saw the harvest Ere the day they died. But the grey, grey company Stood every man alone In the chilly dawnlight: Scarcely had they known Ere the day they perished That their beacon star Was not glint of marshlight In the shadows far. The brave white witnesses To the truth within Took the dart of folly, Took the jeer of sin. Crying, ‘Follow, follow Back to Eden-gate!’ They trod the Polar desert,— Met the desert fate. Be laurel to the victor, And roses to the fair; And asphodel Elysian Let the hero wear: But lay the maiden lilies Upon their narrow biers— The lone grey company Before the pioneers!