Classic Poem

On the edge of the deep grey sea of sleep
Between the veils of the rain
A casement gleams with the light of dreams,
Glimmers, and fades again
While my heart goes keening out to it
Through the volleying gusts—in vain.

The window is set (O heart, forget)
In walls of looming stone,
And she is there, of the shadowy hair,
Waiting so long alone,
Whose eyes my soul would perish for—
O love, desired, unknown.

Now and again through the streaming pane
I see her longing face—
O love, I come, and my lips are dumb
And wan with many a trace
Of hungerings unsatisfied
For your eternal grace.

The long waves lift and the great winds drift
My heart to the sands of night,
Where the end of all is the looming wall
And never a door in sight,
While over the breaking sea there lies
The casement's lonely light.