 | Romance and revery |  |
125
NIGHT.
She roams, with form half shrouded
In mists of dusky hair,
The glittering or dull-clouded
Immensities of air;
And in her mien is present,
Majestic and quiescent,
The spell of some incessant
Mysterious despair!
In mists of dusky hair,
The glittering or dull-clouded
Immensities of air;
And in her mien is present,
Majestic and quiescent,
The spell of some incessant
Mysterious despair!
Beneath her and above her,
While forth her dim feet go,
Flock the fair stars that love her,
With labyrinthine glow;
Now in still splendor burning,
Now shaken as if through yearning,
Perpetually discerning
Her immemorial woe!
While forth her dim feet go,
Flock the fair stars that love her,
With labyrinthine glow;
Now in still splendor burning,
Now shaken as if through yearning,
Perpetually discerning
Her immemorial woe!
126
With plaintive sighs and hollow,
With moans that die or swell,
The winds her wanderings follow
And know her secret well.
In varying voices yearly
They mourn her doom austerely,
Yet its deep anguish clearly
Their wild lips will not tell.
With moans that die or swell,
The winds her wanderings follow
And know her secret well.
In varying voices yearly
They mourn her doom austerely,
Yet its deep anguish clearly
Their wild lips will not tell.
Grim owls that hoot and mutter,
Weird bats that wheel and sweep,
Stray moths on wings that flutter
Where damp flowers droop in sleep,—
To these come vague divinings
Of all her mute repinings,
And why with silver shinings
Her dewfalls dumbly weep!
Weird bats that wheel and sweep,
Stray moths on wings that flutter
Where damp flowers droop in sleep,—
To these come vague divinings
Of all her mute repinings,
And why with silver shinings
Her dewfalls dumbly weep!
The sea, now softly sobbing,
Now a mad life that raves,
Lamenting, billowing, throbbing
Through countless coves and caves,
One song of pity urges
Through all the changeful surges
That bound its myriad verges
With multitudinous waves.
Now a mad life that raves,
Lamenting, billowing, throbbing
Through countless coves and caves,
One song of pity urges
Through all the changeful surges
That bound its myriad verges
With multitudinous waves.
127
But she, supremely mournful,
Pursues with tireless pace
One flying afar and scornful
Of her funereal grace:
Day, that through heaven's expanses
Eternally advances,
Hiding from her dark glances
The effulgence of his face!
Pursues with tireless pace
One flying afar and scornful
Of her funereal grace:
Day, that through heaven's expanses
Eternally advances,
Hiding from her dark glances
The effulgence of his face!
| Romance and revery | |