I travelled through a land of men
A land of men and women too
And heard and saw such dreadful things
As cold earth wanderers never knew

For there the babe is born in joy
That was begotten in dire woe
Just as we reap in joy the fruit
Which we in bitter tears did sow

And if the babe is born a boy
He's given to a woman old
Who nails him down upon a rock
Catches his shrieks in cups of gold

She binds iron thorns around his head
And pierces both his hands and feet
And cuts his heart out of his side
To make it feel both cold & heat

Her fingers number every nerve
Just as a miser counts his gold
She lives upon his shrieks and cries
And she grows young as he grows old

Till he becomes a bleeding youth
And she becomes a virgin bright
Then he rends up his manacles
And pins her down for his delight

He plants himself in all her nerves
Just as a husbandman his mould
And she bcomes his dwelling-place
And garden, frutiful seventyfold

An aged shadow soon he fades
Wandering round and earthly cot
Full filled all with gems and gold
Which he by industry had got

And these are the gems of the human soul
The rubies and pearls of a lovesick eye
The countless gold of an aching heart
The martyr's groan, and the lover's sigh

They are his meat, they are his drink
He feeds the beggar and the poor
And the wayfaring traveller
For ever open is his door

His grief is their eternal joy
They make the roofs and walls to ring
Till from the fire on the hearth
Alittle female babe does spring!

And she is all of solid fire
And gems and gold, that none his hand
Dares stretch to touch her baby form
Or wrap her in his swaddling-band

But she comes to the man she loves
If young or old, or rich or poor
They soon drive out the aged host
A beggar at another's door

He wanders weeping far away
Until some other take him in
Oft blind and age-bent, sore distressed
Until he can a maiden win

And to allay his freezing age
The poor man takes her in his arms
The cottage fades before his sight
The garden and its lovely charms

The guests are scattered through the land
(For the eye altering, alters all)
The senses roll themselves in fear
And the flat earth becomes a ball

The stars, sun, moon, all shrink away
A desert vast without a bound
And nothing left to eat or drink
And a dark desert all around

The honey of her infant lips
The bread and wine of her sweet smile
The wild game of her roving eye
Does him to infancy beguile

For as he eats and drinks he grows
Younger and younger every day
And on the desert wild they both
Wander in terror and dismay

Like the wild stag she flees away
Her fear plants many a thicket wild
While he pursues her night and day
By various arts of love beguiled

By various arts of love and hate
Till the wide desert planted o'er
With labyrinths of wayward love
Where roams the lion, wolf and boar

Till he becomes a wayward babe
And she a weeping woman old
Then many a lover wanders here
The sun and stars are nearer rolled

The trees bring forth sweet ecstasy
To all who in the desert roam
Till many a city there is built
And many a pleasant shepherd's home

But when they find the frowning babe
Terror strikes through the region wide
They cry, 'The Babe! the Babe is born! '
And flee away on every side

For who dare touch the frowning form
His arm is withered to its root
Lions, boars, wolves, all howling flee
And every tree does shed its fruit

And none can touch that frowning form
Except it be a woman old
She nails him down upon the rock
And all is done as I have told