The speaker addresses the blind, hunted, creeping things of the darkness and tells them she is coming to meet them. She had chosen light and air, “sun-sweet air and wings / And the blue day,” but now she must creep through clinging darkness to keep an appointed meeting with these “dim citizens.” The word “tryst” makes the descent feel both intimate and fated. In the second stanza, she remembers her time of soaring and asks whether she should complain about going a heavier way, “in bonds and pain.” Her answer is essentially no. Life’s rulers do not distinguish between high and low, and the human heart must travel many roads. The mood is hushed, somber, and accepting—an acknowledgment that suffering and lowliness are part of the same journey as flight and freedom.
The Tryst — Summary
I COME to you, blind, hunted creeping things, I come your way ; Though I had chosen sun-sweet air and wings And the blue day. Now through the clinging darkness I must creep, Dim citizens, with you my tryst to keep.
I've had my soaring time, my long, light day. Shall I complain If for a space I go a heavier way In bonds and pain ? The lords of life know neither high nor low, The heart of man by many a road must go.