Louis Rosen

Lyrics

THE MAN HUNT (words by Madison Cawein, adapted by Louis Rosen)

The woods stretch deep to the mountain-side, / And the brush is wild where a man may hide. / They have brought the hounds out in the rain / To the roadside rock where the man was slain / They have brought the bloodhounds up, and they / Have taken the trail to the mountain way. / And the woods stretch deep to the mountain-side, / And the brush is wild where a man may hide.

Three times they circled the trail and crossed, / Three times found and three times lost. / Now straight through the trees and the underbrush / They follow the scent through the summer hush. / And their silent prey is filled with fear / As the sound of the hounds and the men grow near. / Still the woods stretch deep to the mountain-side,— / And the brush is wild where a man may hide.

A huddle of rocks that the ooze has mossed— / And the trail of the hunted again is lost. / An upturned pebble, a bit of ground that a heel has trampled— / The trail is found. And the woods re-echo the bloodhounds’ bay / As again they take to the mountain way. / Still the woods stretch deep to the mountain side,— / And the brush is wild where a man may hide.

A rock, a ribbon of road, a ledge, / With a pine-tree clutching its crumbling edge. / A shout, a curse, men and hounds run past / And the human quarry is found at last. / The human quarry with clay-clogged hair / Who’s luckless fate had brought him there. / He glares and crouches and rises then / Hurls clay and curses at dogs and men.

Then the blow of a gun-butt comes apace; / Leaves him stunned and bleeding where it strikes his face. / A rope; a prayer; and an oak-tree near, / And a score of hands to swing him clear. / A grim, black thing for the setting sun,— / For the sun and the moon and the stars to look upon.

© 2012 Louis Rosen, Lullwater Music, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.