Silence and stealth of days! 'Tis now Since thou art gone Twelve hundred hours, and not a brow But clouds hang on. As he that in some cave's thick damp Locked from the light, Fixeth a solitary lamp To brave the night, And, walking from his sun, when past That glimmering ray Cuts through the heavy mists in haste Back to his day, So o'er fled minutes I retreat Unto that hour Which showed thee last but did defeat Thy light and power. I search and rack my soul to see Those beams again, But nothing but the snuff to me Appeareth plain; That, dark and dead, sleeps in its known And common urn, But those fled to their Maker's throne There shine and burn; O could I track them! But souls must Track one the other, And now the spirit, not the dust Must be thy brother. Yet I have one pearl by whose light All things I see, And in the heart of earth and night Find Heaven and thee. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LACK OF STEADFASTNESS; BALLAD by GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE WOODLARK by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS CLORINDA AND DAMON by ANDREW MARVELL REUBEN JAMES by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE AUNTIE'S SKIRTS by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON MUSIC OF HUNGARY by ANNE REEVE ALDRICH CHORUS OF THE CLOUD-MAIDEN: ANTISTROPHE, FR. THE CLOUDS by ARISTOPHANES |