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THE GNOME
LANTERN-LIGHT is over the fells
When the sun has sunken low;
Lantern-light and the moorland smells,
The rain on the good brown soil.
Over the moorland we go, we go,
Through the wet earth we toil... .
Sunken, sunken was the sun
Ere ever the moon uprose,
And the tall dark trees cast shadows dun
Over the lonely way;
Over the moorland the long path goes
We trod at the close of day.
We sped to reach the dark green hill,
The Hill of the Bloody Bowl,
And the shadows were watching, watching us still
As we crept in the shadowless path,
Over the moor to the Mother Troll
With the heart that was pierced in wrath.