Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/48

44 DARKNESS.

in the darkness all alone

And list to the night-wind's whispered moan,

That is not as sad as my spirit's tone,

Nor any thing else can be;

For in this starless, moonless night,

With not a ray save the spirit's light,

I am musing o'er leaves, some sad, some bright,

In the book of memory.

A thousand dim forms around me glide,

And circle me in on every side,

And their presence urges the burning tide

Of thought upon my soul.

A fever is scorching heart and brain,

And burning in every throbbing vein,

And sudden thrills of a wild, fierce pain

Are mocking all control.

It is but ray troubled dream, I know;

But the very darkness seems to glow,

And the stars to wander to and fro,

With a red and fiery gleam.

O for a ray of the blessed light,

To break the gloom of this fearful night,

And banish this vision from my sight,

And waken me from my dream.

I did not think, when I sat me here,

That the night would seem so dark and drear,

Or the air so full of forms of fear;

But I wished to sit and think,

In the breathless stillness of the night,

Of a lofty being, pure and bright,

Who had taught my spirit of the might

Of his own soul to drink.