 | In Classic Shades and other poems |  |
66
“LA NOTTE.”
Is it night? And sits at night your pillow?
Sits darkness about you like death?
Rolls darkness above like a billow,
As drowning men catch in their breath?
Sits darkness about you like death?
Rolls darkness above like a billow,
As drowning men catch in their breath?
Is it night, and deep night of dark errors,
Of crosses, of pitfalls and bars?
Then lift up your face from your terrors,
For heaven alone holds the stars!
Of crosses, of pitfalls and bars?
Then lift up your face from your terrors,
For heaven alone holds the stars!
Lo! shaggy-beard shepherds, the fastness—
Lorn, desolate Syrian sod;
The darkness, the midnight, the vastness—
That vast, solemn night bore a God!
Lorn, desolate Syrian sod;
The darkness, the midnight, the vastness—
That vast, solemn night bore a God!
That night brought us God! and the Savior
Lay down in a manger to rest;
A sweet cherub Babe in behavior,
So that all Baby-world might be blest.
Lay down in a manger to rest;
A sweet cherub Babe in behavior,
So that all Baby-world might be blest.
| In Classic Shades and other poems | |