Anne Evans: Poems and Music :: :: University of Virginia Library

Midnight! I love thee for thine own true sake
Not as they love thee who thy grand array
Bid thee relinquish for disguises gay,
Till thy dim reign of noontide blaze partake:
Not as the toil-worn, for the needful break
Thou bringest to their life-consuming day:
I, following leisurely my quiet way,
Earn not, nor prize, their interval opaque.
For through thy darkness gleams unearthly light;
Whether in dreams the unresting spirit, free
From weight of Reason, climb the wildest height
Of Wonder, and strange Beauty, Power, and Glee;
Or whether, wakeful, lost to sound and sight,
Dead to the world, we face Eternity!