The warning beat at his mind like a bird and passed. Ellyat roused. He thought: they are going South. He stared at the sky, confused. It was empty and bleak. But still he felt the shock of the hooves on his heart. —The riderless horses never bridled or tamed⁠— He heard them screaming like eagles loosed from a cloud As they drove South to trample the indolent sun, And darkness set in his mind like a shadow enthroned. He could not read the riddle their flight had set But he felt wretched, and glad for the dog’s cold nose That now came nuzzling his hand. Who has set you free? Who has driven you out in the sky with an iron whip Like blind, old thunders stubbornly marching abreast To carry a portent high on shoulders of stone The length and breadth of the Union? The North and South are at peace and the East and West, The tomahawk is buried in prairie-sod. The great frontier rolls westward with the sun, And the new States are crowding at the door, The buckskin-States, the buffalo-horned, the wild Mustangs with coats the color of crude gold. Their bodies, naked as the hunter’s moon, Smell of new grass and the sweet milk of the corn.