Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/498



power! by very indistinctness made More potent, as the twilight's shade Gives magnitude to objects mean; Thou power, though deeply felt, unseen, That with thy mystic, undefined, And boundless presence, fills my mind With unimaginable fears, and chills My aching heart, and all its pulses stills Into a silence deeper than the grave, That erst throbbed quick and brave! Wherefore, at dead of night, by some lone stream, Dost thou, embodying its very sound In thy own substance, seem To speak of some lorn maiden, who hath found Her bridal pillow deftly spread Upon the tall reeds' rustling head, And the long green sedges graceful sweep, Where the otter and the wild drake sleep? And wherefore, in the moonshine clear, Doth her wan form appear