The frontiers freeze before us,
Now youth is left behind,
Though once they ever lured us,
To braver vaster valley-lands.
The ice of them is round us,
A hope-arresting rind;
Our feet must travel slower,
And slower thaw the mind.
The frontiers freeze before us,
The dead leaves shiver round us,
Our breath is less within us,
The way is hard to find.

The frontiers freeze before us:
They once were blossoming
With faith and virid vision
Like faery and enchanted lands.
The bliss of youth was on us,
And every dream could bring
Such ardency as melted
All fear that fate could fling.
The frontiers freeze before us,
The sun sets sooner round us,
The night is darker in us,
Our hearts forget to sing.

The frontiers freeze before us,
And will not melt again,
But ever shut us closer
Within the narrow bounds of them.
So now there's only left us
The half-way things of men,
The staked claim kept securely,
The aims that all may ken.
The frontiers freeze before us,
The long wait now is on us,
Until death's frontier calls us
To pass the Final Fen.