Spirits in Bondage

by C.S. Lewis

XL - Death in Battle

Open the gates for me,
     Open the gates of the peaceful castle, rosy in the West,
     In the sweet dim Isle of Apples over the wide sea's breast,

     Open the gates for me!

     Sorely pressed have I been
     And driven and hurt beyond bearing this summer day,
     But the heat and the pain together suddenly fall away,
     All's cool and green.

     But a moment agone,
     Among men cursing in fight and toiling, blinded I fought,
     But the labour passed on a sudden even as a passing thought,

     And now-alone!

     Ah, to be ever alone,
     In flowery valleys among the mountains and silent wastes untrod,
     In the dewy upland places, in the garden of God,
     This would atone!

     I shall not see
     The brutal, crowded faces around me, that in their toil have grown
     Into the faces of devils-yea, even as my own—
     When I find thee,

     O Country of Dreams!
     Beyond the tide of the ocean, hidden and sunk away,
     Out of the sound of battles, near to the end of day,
     Full of dim woods and streams.