Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/220

202 Almighty, thou didst seek me out and test To try and to instruct me in the night. I dare not idly on my pillow lie, With winged feet to the shrine I fain would fly. When chained by leaden slumbers heavily, Men rest in imaged shadows, dreams of night Infatuate I trifled youth away. In nothingness dreamed through my manhood's day. Therefore my streaming tears I may not stay, They are my meat and drink by day and night. In flesh imprisoned is the son of light, This life is but a bridge when seen aright. Rise in the silent hour and pray with might. Awake and call upon thy God by night ! Hasten to cleanse thyself of sin, arise ! Follow Truth's path that leads unto the skies. As swift as yesterday existence flies. Brief even as a watch within the night Man enters life for trouble ; all he has, And all that he beholds, is pain, alas ! Like to a flower does he bloom and pass, He fadeth like a vision of the night The surging floods of life around him roar, Death feeds upon him, pity is no more,