University of Virginia Library

ODE TO THE NIGHT

Goddess dark bosomed, from thy mystic cave
Sounds strange and sad we hear,
Unfit for mortal ear!
Ever and ever do the bleak winds rave
About thy throne, in fits and gusty flaws:
Save when thou sittest in thy musing mood
With calm eyes full of meditation grave,
And from grey memory's secret hoarded stores
Callest strange thoughts to ponder on:
Beneath thee lies the circling ocean flood,
Above thy head is vaulted the deep sky;
But thou art still alone—
There is a mystery in thine eye!
What spirits dost thou commune with, strange queen?
Do the unblinded stars in whispers airy
Murmur unknown things in thine ear divine?
Or do the spirits, that in their cloudy shrine
Write fearful warning on the sky serene
In letters of red lightning, tell thee all
The mysteries of mysteries? In the starry
Hollow of thine eternal throne,
Where thou dost sit in lone divinity,
Thou hearest them one to another call;
And fraught with musing all alone
Thy curvèd brows are bent with thought
Whose treasures were by those strange spirits brought
From the inner radiance of the inner sky.
O ancient mother of the holy moon,
Whose veilèd brows are only bare
To kiss thy daughter the chill air,
Wert thou in some deep cavern never lighten'd
Nor seen of day, but deepening down
From depth to airy depth, in chaos lorn
Fram'd out of silence, so that when the morn
Kissed all things else and made them laugh with light,
Thou only wast not brighten'd,
But crowned with thine own darkness, mystic night!