O Where are you Going ? <br />WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN <br />(1907-1973) <br /><br />"O where are you going ?" said reader to rider, <br />"That valley is fatal when furnaces burn, <br />Yonder's the midden where odours will madden, <br />That gap is the grave where the tall return." <br /><br />"O do you imagine," said fearer to farer, <br />"That dusk will delay on your path to the pass, <br />Your diligent looking discover the lacking <br />Your footsteps feel from granite to grass ?" <br /><br />"O what was that bird," said horror to hearer, <br />"Did you see that shape in the twisted trees ? <br />Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, <br />The spot on your skin is a shocking disease." <br /><br />"Out of this house" - said rider to reader, <br />"Yours never will" - said farer to fearer, <br />"They're looking for you" - said hearer to horror, <br />As he left them there, as he left them there.
