I TELL you this—each lapse of light
That glares the world from roof to floor,
Shall leave, as days that died before,
This envelope of antient night.

O Heart! this wash of fluent air,
The ocean's calm sonorous stir,
That floods the huge horizon's blur,
Dissolves in silence, like a prayer

That threads the still cathedral's peace,
A rhythmic pathway thro' the grave,
Eternal twilight of the nave,
Whose silences shall never cease.

The fret of youth, the sword and wreath,
The flush of fame, the vernal smart,
The human tears that flood the heart
Are sparkles on the void of death.

For every life returns to this—
We are and are not, one by one,
As zones and systems, sun by sun,
Burn out—the darkness ever is.

Yea, life and light, the sea and star,
Upon the warp of things sublime,
Seem only—Never touched by time
Old night and death and silence are.