Darkness

Deep is the night, and wraps the sleeping world
Like dark velvet, soft and warm, and fragrant
With the odorous of flowers that wake at night
To secretly turn their white faces up
To the silent sky, where the stars
In countless myriads, lie like sparkling
Orient gems, shed by the hand of God,
When across the abysmal darkness He swept
On Creation’s last day, to survey His handicraft.

Ah! mystery of mysteries!
That stretches its darkness vast, through unknown worlds,
To the rolling waves of Infinity;
Beyond human ken and control,
Where the human spirit stands abashed
Trembling like a guilty thing,
Face to face with what is too big,
Too lofty for it’s puny finitude;
What daring dark secrets are there hid,
Before which the bold exploring mind
Quails and turns on itself in dread?

Wave on wave of blue limitless darkness
Spreads, lighted but by tiny flickering lamps;
Far out, o’er the wide horizon it sweeps,
And drawn out the thirsting human soul,
On a wild vain search
Questioning, doubting, yet eager to go on
To solve the Final Mystery.

But no, the waves of darkness spread beyond,
Baffling, defiant, triumphantly on
To mingle with the distant rolling waves
Of Infinity, that beat ceaselessly
On the barren shores of Eternity:
And the night is deep,
Soft and warm; and fragrant like dark velvet
It lies on the tired mind and eye.