Classic Poem

Tempt me no more! I hear thee in the dark,
Muttering thy words of import dire;
Mine eyes fill up with tears, and hardly mark
My one star paling all its fire.

What hast thou not ta'en from me? joy and hope,
And life's last priceless, chiefest gift,
Trust that the world has one o'ermastering scope,
And suffering's clouds gloom but to lift.

I stand alone beneath the deepening night,
And hark the circling winds that moan,
And bear afar upon their homeless flight
All grief's impassioned undertone.

All time's great woe seems poured upon the air,
The oceaned pain engirds me round;
My heart grows cold within me, and I dare
Not sink beneath the weight of sound.

My one star pulses pale and ghostly sad
On the black void that apes the sky;
Will it, too, perish, borne on ways that had
No pity for my truths most high?

Nay, thou shalt shine though all the splendid host
Merge in the void that mocks at thee,
A beacon on heaven's barely-outlined coast,
An island on the storm-swept sea.

O kin to what is deepest in my heart,
The energy to be and live,
The force that rules all change, and hath no part
In aught the Night and Death may give,

From thee shall spring strange influences to call
The light back to each starry shell
That floats across the sight in bond and thrall
To the base Night's o'erpowering spell.

The stars that woke with laughter of the spring
Shall re-arise in skies that know
The subtle perfumes Love's sweet bowers shall fling
From blooms that shine and joys that glow.

Tempt me no more with mutterings of ill!
I will keep vigil till the rose
Of morning's lucency begins to thrill
From peak to peak of mountain snows.

I will not lose thee, O my light of light,
Thou shalt not pass forth of my gaze;
Through thee I will make conquest of the Night,
And bring the sun back to my days.

Whatso will falter, toward thy glow I spring,
And know not harm nor bitter scathe;
Whatso slips from me, unto thee I cling,
And lose not my deep faith in Faith!