The Poetical Works of John Payne Definitive Edition in Two Volumes |
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DE PROFUNDIS. |
 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
347
DE PROFUNDIS.
COME, o ye nights and ye days of entrancement,
Back to my call!
Ye, with whose help for my spirit's enhancement,
Once I knew not what the strokes of mischance meant,
Feared not to fall;
Once had I youth, love and hope at my bidding,
Faith to enforce me 'gainst Fortune's forbidding;
Once was I ringed with resolve for the ridding
Thought of Time's thrall.
Now from me youth, love and hope have departed;
Left am I lonely and weariful-hearted,
Beggared of all.
Back to my call!
Ye, with whose help for my spirit's enhancement,
Once I knew not what the strokes of mischance meant,
Feared not to fall;
Once had I youth, love and hope at my bidding,
Faith to enforce me 'gainst Fortune's forbidding;
Once was I ringed with resolve for the ridding
Thought of Time's thrall.
Now from me youth, love and hope have departed;
Left am I lonely and weariful-hearted,
Beggared of all.
Once was I buttressed and bastioned with dreaming,
Fenced from affray,
Vantaged with visions in glory still gleaming,
Fortressed of fancy 'gainst striving and seeming,
Doubt and dismay.
Now from my slumber, alack! I awaken,
Find myself lonely, forlorn and forsaken,
All that I cherished to flight having taken,
Fleeted away.
Fate of my loves, one and all, hath bereft me,
All my bright mates have betrayed me and left me
Naked to-day.
Fenced from affray,
Vantaged with visions in glory still gleaming,
Fortressed of fancy 'gainst striving and seeming,
Doubt and dismay.
Now from my slumber, alack! I awaken,
Find myself lonely, forlorn and forsaken,
All that I cherished to flight having taken,
Fleeted away.
Fate of my loves, one and all, hath bereft me,
All my bright mates have betrayed me and left me
Naked to-day.
Where, oh my dreams and my visions, ah whither,
Where did ye fly?
Hither, again, oh ye runagates, hither
Come at my cry!
See, my soul sorrows, my bosom is bleeding;
Sore is my sufferance, utter my needing:
Surely ye will not pass by me, unheeding,
Leave me to die,
Me that have fostered you, cherished you, cared for you,
When all the world was a desert unshared for you,
All passed you by!
Where did ye fly?
Hither, again, oh ye runagates, hither
Come at my cry!
See, my soul sorrows, my bosom is bleeding;
Sore is my sufferance, utter my needing:
348
Leave me to die,
Me that have fostered you, cherished you, cared for you,
When all the world was a desert unshared for you,
All passed you by!
Yet, if ye will not restore me, or may not,
Aught of increase,
If Fate's foreordinance summon you stay not,
Force you to cease,
For the sweet life's sake of old that I led with you,
By the wild ways that my spirit did tread with you,
Give me again my soul's angel that fled with you,
White-wingèd Peace!
Render me back the mild magic that made me,
Midmost the toils and the woes that waylaid me,
Gideon's fleece!
Aught of increase,
If Fate's foreordinance summon you stay not,
Force you to cease,
For the sweet life's sake of old that I led with you,
By the wild ways that my spirit did tread with you,
Give me again my soul's angel that fled with you,
White-wingèd Peace!
Render me back the mild magic that made me,
Midmost the toils and the woes that waylaid me,
Gideon's fleece!
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |