Light and Dark
I.
STRAGGLING through the winter sky,
What is this that begs the eye ?
More than pauper by its state,
Less than prince its bashful gait.
What is this that begs the eye ?
More than pauper by its state,
Less than prince its bashful gait.
’T is the soul in sun’s disguise,
Child of Reason’s enterprise;
Through earth’s weather seeks its kin,
Begs the sun-like take it in.
Child of Reason’s enterprise;
Through earth’s weather seeks its kin,
Begs the sun-like take it in.
Thus from purpling heaven bid,
Open flies the double lid;
To the palace-steps repair
Souls awakened, foul or fair ;
Open flies the double lid;
To the palace-steps repair
Souls awakened, foul or fair ;
Heavy with a maudlin sleep,
Blithesome from a vision deep,
Flying westward with the night,
Eastward to renew their plight.
Blithesome from a vision deep,
Flying westward with the night,
Eastward to renew their plight.
At this menace of the dawn
Dreams the helm of Thought put on ;
All my heart its fresco high
Paints against the morning sky.
Dreams the helm of Thought put on ;
All my heart its fresco high
Paints against the morning sky.
II.
Is the firmament of brass
’Gainst my thoughts that seek to pass ?
Does the granite vault my brain,
That the soul cannot attain ?
’Gainst my thoughts that seek to pass ?
Does the granite vault my brain,
That the soul cannot attain ?
Planets to my window roll;
From the eye which is their goal
Million miles are built of space,
Web that glittering we trace.
From the eye which is their goal
Million miles are built of space,
Web that glittering we trace.
Like a lens the winter sky Hurls its planets through the eye, But to thoughts a buckler dense, Baffling love and reverence.
Shivered lie the darts I throw,
Vassal stars can farther go;
Time and Space are drops of dew,
When’t is Light would travel through.
Vassal stars can farther go;
Time and Space are drops of dew,
When’t is Light would travel through.
Shining finds its own expanse,
Rolling suns make room to dance:
Earth unfasten from my brain,
Rid me of my ball and chain.
Rolling suns make room to dance:
Earth unfasten from my brain,
Rid me of my ball and chain.
Through the window, through the world,
My untethered soul is hurled,
Finds an orbit nothing bars,
Sings its note with morning-stars.
My untethered soul is hurled,
Finds an orbit nothing bars,
Sings its note with morning-stars.
III.
Dearth of God, of Love a dearth,
Rolls my thought, a cloudy Earth,
Through the sullen noon that fears,
Yet expects the morning-spears.
Rolls my thought, a cloudy Earth,
Through the sullen noon that fears,
Yet expects the morning-spears.
Ere they glisten, ere they threat,
All my heart lies cold and wet,
Prisoned fog between the hills,
Cheerless pulse of midnight rills.
All my heart lies cold and wet,
Prisoned fog between the hills,
Cheerless pulse of midnight rills.
’T is the darkness that has crept
Where the purple life is kept;
All the veins to thought supply
Murk from out the jealous sky.
Where the purple life is kept;
All the veins to thought supply
Murk from out the jealous sky.
Blood that makes the face a dawn,
Mother’s breast to life, is gone:
Strikes my waste no hoof that’s bright
Into sparkles of delight.
Mother’s breast to life, is gone:
Strikes my waste no hoof that’s bright
Into sparkles of delight.
Heavy freight of care and pain,
Want of friends, and God’s disdain,
Loveless home, and meagre fate
In the midnight well may wait
Want of friends, and God’s disdain,
Loveless home, and meagre fate
In the midnight well may wait
Well may such an Earth forlorn
Shudder on the brink of morn ;
But the great breath will not stay,
Strands me on the reefs of day.
Shudder on the brink of morn ;
But the great breath will not stay,
Strands me on the reefs of day.
IV.
Bellying Earth no anchor throws
Stouter than the breath that blows,
Night and Sorrow cling in vain,
It must toss in day again.
Stouter than the breath that blows,
Night and Sorrow cling in vain,
It must toss in day again.
Hospital and battle-field,
Myriad spots where fate is sealed,
Brinks that crumble, sins that urge,
Plunge again into that surge.
Myriad spots where fate is sealed,
Brinks that crumble, sins that urge,
Plunge again into that surge.
How the purple breakers throw
Round me their insatiate glow,
Sweep my deck of hideous freight,
Pour through fastening and grate !
Round me their insatiate glow,
Sweep my deck of hideous freight,
Pour through fastening and grate !
I awake from night’s alarms
In the bliss of living arms :
Melted goes my leaden dream
Down the warmth of this Gulf-Stream.
In the bliss of living arms :
Melted goes my leaden dream
Down the warmth of this Gulf-Stream.
’T is the trade-wind of my soul,
Wafting life to make it whole:
All the night it joyward blew,
Though I neither hoped nor knew.
Wafting life to make it whole:
All the night it joyward blew,
Though I neither hoped nor knew.
Fresher blow me out to sea,
Morning-tost I fain would be,
Sweep my deck and pile it high
With the ingots of the sky.
Morning-tost I fain would be,
Sweep my deck and pile it high
With the ingots of the sky.
Give me freight to carry round
To a place with night that’s drowned,
That the Gulf-Stream of the day
Glitter then my Milky-Way.
To a place with night that’s drowned,
That the Gulf-Stream of the day
Glitter then my Milky-Way.