Songs of Action by Arthur Conan Doyle - HTML preview

THE OLD HUNTSMAN

There’s a keen and grim old huntsman
    On a horse as white as snow;
 Sometimes he is very swift
    And sometimes he is slow.
 But he never is at fault,
    For he always hunts at view
 And he rides without a halt
       After you.

The huntsman’s name is Death,
    His horse’s name is Time;
 He is coming, he is coming
    As I sit and write this rhyme;
 He is coming, he is coming,
    As you read the rhyme I write;
 You can hear the hoofs’ low drumming
       Day and night.

You can hear the distant drumming
    As the clock goes tick-a-tack,
 And the chiming of the hours
    Is the music of his pack.
 You may hardly note their growling
    Underneath the noonday sun,
 But at night you hear them howling
       As they run.

And they never check or falter
    For they never miss their kill;
 Seasons change and systems alter,
    But the hunt is running still.
 Hark! the evening chime is playing,
    O’er the long grey town it peals;
 Don’t you hear the death-hound baying
       At your heels?

Where is there an earth or burrow?
    Where a cover left for you?
 A year, a week, perhaps to-morrow
    Brings the Huntsman’s death halloo!
 Day by day he gains upon us,
    And the most that we can claim
 Is that when the hounds are on us
       We die game.

And somewhere dwells the Master,
    By whom it was decreed;
 He sent the savage huntsman,
    He bred the snow-white steed.
 These hounds which run for ever,
    He set them on your track;
 He hears you scream, but never
       Calls them back.

He does not heed our suing,
    We never see his face;
 He hunts to our undoing,
    We thank him for the chase.
 We thank him and we flatter,
    We hope—because we must—
 But have we cause?  No matter!
       Let us trust!

END