First Emotion

"Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching strade,
And the whisper spreads and widens far and near;
And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now -
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!

On my Knees and draw the bow; bid the shrilling arrow go;
In the empty, nocking thicket plunge the spear;
But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left my cheek -
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!

Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless boulders leap -
Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf - rib clear -
But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy side
Hammers: Fear, O Little Hunter - this is Fear!"

(R. Kipling, 1895/1983: The second jungle book. London: Macmillan
imagem:storyboard from a scene of Birds, Alfred Hitchcock)