So, on the bloody sand, Sohrab lay dead; And the great Rustum drew his horseman's cloak Down o'er his face, and sate by his dead son. As those black granite pillars, once high-rear'd 860 By Jemshid in Persepolis,° to bear °861 His house, now 'mid their broken flights of steps Lie prone, enormous, down the mountain side-- So in the sand lay Rustum by his son.
And night came down over the solemn waste, 865 And the two gazing hosts, and that sole pair, And darken'd all; and a cold fog, with night, Crept from the Oxus. Soon a hum arose, As of a great assembly loosed, and fires Began to twinkle through the fog; for now 870 Both armies moved to camp, and took their meal; The Persians took it on the open sands Southward, the Tartars by the river marge; And Rustum and his son were left alone.
But the majestic river floated on, 875 Out of the mist and hum of that low land, Into the frosty starlight, and there moved, Rejoicing, through the hush'd Chorasmian° waste, °878 Under the solitary moon;--he flow'd Right for the polar star,° past Orgunjè,° °880 Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin To hem his watery march, and dam his streams, And split his currents; that for many a league The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles-- 885 Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere, A foil'd circuitous wanderer--till at last The long'd-for dash of waves is heard, and wide His luminous home° of waters opens, bright °890 And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars° °891 Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.
Saint Brandan sails the northern main; The brotherhood of saints are glad. He greets them once, he sails again; So late!--such storms!--The Saint is mad!
He heard, across the howling seas, 5 Chime convent-bells on wintry nights; He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides,° °7 Twinkle the monastery-lights;
But north, still north, Saint Brandan steer'd-- And now no bells, no convents more! 10 The hurtling Polar lights° are near'd, °11 The sea without a human shore.
At last--(it was the Christmas night; Stars shone after a day of storm)-- He sees float past an iceberg white, 15 And on it--Christ!--a living form.