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THE NIGHT'S MESSAGE.
Last night there came a message to mine earSaying: Come forth, that I may speak with thee.
It was the Night herself that called to me.
And I arose and went forth without fear
And without hope; and by the mountain-mere,
In the great silence sitting silently,
Drank in amazed the large moon's purity:
Yet was my soul unsoothed of any cheer.
But when the moon had set, a great mist lay
On the earth and me, and to its wide soft breast
Drew forth the secret woe we might not say.
Then slowly, its brooding presence lightlier pressed,
It heaved, and broke, and swayed, and soared away:
And the Earth had morn, and I some space of rest.
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