Page:The city of dreadful night - and other poems (IA cityofdreadfulni00thomrich).pdf/63

 For our illusion; to refrain from grieving Dear foolish friends by our untimely leaving: But those asleep at home, how blest are they!

Yet it is but for one night after all: What matters one brief night of dreary pain? When after it the weary eyelids fall Upon the weary eyes and wasted brain; And all sad scenes and thoughts and feelings vanish In that sweet sleep no power can ever banish, That one best sleep which never wakes again.

I sat me weary on a pillar's base, And leaned against the shaft; for broad moonlight O'erflowed the peacefulness of cloistered space, A shore of shadow slanting from the right: The great cathedral's western front stood there, A wave-worn rock in that calm sea of air.

Before it, opposite my place of rest, Two figures faced each other, large, austere; A couchant sphinx in shadow to the breast, An angel standing in the moonlight clear;