"Despair"

Despair

Astride, like a man, on a dun-colored mare, 

Thro’ the wan shadows that herald the night, 

Down the long valley comes riding Despair. 

Sharply the hoof-beats wake up the dull air! 

Who would have guessed that I’d know her at sight― 

Astride, like a man, on a dun-colored mare! 

Bent are her eyebrows beneath her black hair, 

Firm is her seat and her rein-torch is light― 

Down the long valley comes riding Despair. 

Ah, she resembles her pale sister, Care― 

She who comes riding, defiant, to-night, 

Astride, like a man, on a dun-colored mare! 

With eyeballs gleaming and eyelids aflare, 

Nostrils distended and thin lips set tight, 

Down the long valley comes riding Despair. 

(I have a good sword named Courage. I swear, 

Back to the wall I will stand up and fight!) 

Astride, like a man, on a dun-colored mare, 

Down the long valley comes riding Despair.

"Despair" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).