53. Night

George William Russell

BURNING our hearts out with longing
The daylight passed:
Millions and millions together,
The stars at last!


Purple the woods where the dewdrops,
Pearly and grey,
Wash in the cool from our faces
The flame of day.


Glory and shadow grow one in
The hazel wood:
Laughter and peace in the stillness
Together brood.


Hopes all unearthly are thronging
In hearts of earth:
Tongues of the starlight are calling
Our souls to birth.


Down from the heaven its secrets
Drop one by one;
Where time is for ever beginning
And time is done.


There light eternal is over
Chaos and night:
Singing with dawn lips for ever,
“Let there be light!”


There too for ever in twilight
Time slips away,
Closing in darkness and rapture
Its awful day.

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