How strange! No light within the darkened room No lamp to shed his hinted light, and spill A flickering welcome on this icy sill Where my hands rest, reaching from out the gloom? None! All I see is shadowy as a tomb. The glass against my forehead strikes a chill Straight through my brain. The window glimmers still As cold as steel, as obdurate as doom. Ah, outer gardens of my prophet's mind, What words ye flowered! 'Twas there I plucked such healing Closelier I circled round his soul, to find Its radiant inmost home; this night came stealing Before his spirit's house, -- and know it -- blind! -- Blind of all light, empty and unrevealing! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODES I, 38. AD MINISTRAM by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS TWO POEMS TO HANS THOMA ON HIS SIXIETH BIRTHDAY: 1. MOONLIGHT NIGHT by RAINER MARIA RILKE THE SABBATH LAMP by GRACE AGUILAR A SHADOW OF THE NIGHT by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 29. ALL NOT WORTH A REWARD by PHILIP AYRES THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |