The Decoy

The Decoy written by Walter de la Mare

The Veil and Other Poems (1921)

Link to further information

'Tell us, O pilgrim, what strange She
Lures and decoys your wanderings on?
Cheek, eye, brow, lip, you scan each face,
Smile, ponder -- and are gone.

'Are we not flesh and blood? Mark well,
We touch you with our hands. We speak
A tongue that may earth's secrets tell:
Why further will you seek?'

'Far have I come, and far must fare.
Noon and night and morning-prime,
I search the long road, bleak and bare,
That fades away in Time.

'On the world's brink its wild weeds shake,
And there my own dust, dark with dew,
Burns with a rose that, sleep or wake,
Beacons me -- "Follow true!"'

'Her name, crazed soul? And her degree?
What peace, prize, profit in her breast?'
'A thousand cheating names hath she;
And none fore-tokens rest.'

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 50 years or less, but may still be copyrighted in the USA and some countries in Europe. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether the works are in the public domain in his or her respective country.