The night, the light.
The light was bright.
A chant, a song, the slow dance of the little things within him.
The star over the town, the light over the hill, the sod over Ben, night over all.
His mind fumbled with little things.
Over us all is something.
Star, night, earth, light . . . light . . .
O lost! . . . a stone . . . a leaf . . . a door . . . O ghost! . . . a light . . . a song . . . a light . . . a light swings over the hill . . . over us all . . . a star shines over the town . . . over us all . . . a light.
We shall not come again.
We never shall come back again.
But over us all, over us all, over us all is — something.
Wind pressed the boughs; the withered leaves were shaking.
It was October, but some leaves were shaking.
A light swings over the hill. (We shall not come again.) And over the town a star. (Over us all, over us all that shall not come again.) And over the day the dark.
But over the darkness — what?
We shall not come again.
We never shall come back again.
Over the dawn a lark. (That shall not come again.) And wind and music far.
O lost! (It shall not come again.) And over your mouth the earth.
O ghost!
But, over the darkness — what?
Wind pressed the boughs; the withered leaves were quaking.
We shall not come again.
We never shall come back again.
It was October, but we never shall come back again.
When will they come again?
When will they come again?
The laurel, the lizard, and the stone will come no more.
The women weeping at the gate have gone and will not come again.
And pain and pride and death will pass, and will not come again.
And light and dawn will pass, and the star and the cry of a lark will pass, and will not come again.
And we shall pass, and shall not come again.
What things will come again?
O Spring, the cruellest and fairest of the seasons, will come again.
And the strange and buried men will come again, in flower and leaf the strange and buried men will come again, and death and the dust will never come again, for death and the dust will die.
And Ben will come again, he will not die again, in flower and leaf, in wind and music far, he will come back again.
O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again!
It had grown dark.
The frosty night blazed with great brilliant stars.
The lights in the town shone with sharp radiance.
Presently, when he had lain upon the cold earth for some time, Eugene got up and went away toward the town.
Wind pressed the boughs; the withered leaves were shaking.
38
Three weeks after Eugene’s return to the university the war ended.
The students cursed and took off their uniforms.
But they rang the great bronze bell, and built a bonfire on the campus, leaping around it like dervishes.
Life fell back into civilian patterns.
The gray back of winter was broken: the Spring came through.
Eugene was a great man on the campus of the little university.
He plunged exultantly into the life of the place.