"Undaunted"

Undaunted

There is a wind comes roaring at the midnight hour 

Down this bleak canyon deep within the hills, 

So wild, so weird, so strong, it stirs and thrills 

My soul, till it is like a shaken flower,

Close-nunneried in some dim old forest bower, 

That pulls at its earth-roots to leap and go 

Out on the mighty air-tides’ ebb and flow— 

What time the heavy rain clouds darkling lower.

Ah, to ride out on such a wind as this, 

Gripped to Death’s breast, upon his pallid steed, 

Without an instant’s warning or farewell! 

To press his lips in one long dauntless kiss, 

And shudder not in any coward creed, 

But face what I deserve, be it heaven or hell.

"Undaunted" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land (1903).

"Undaunted" as it appears in Ella Higginson's Four-Leaf Clover (1901).

A draft of "Undaunted" on onionskin paper, courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.