  The impenetrable dark— Darkness of cloud and night Coming on black silent wings Surround me in their folds, As it sits by my side on the shore of time. No fear, no sorrow, no hope, Not even the footfall of a star; Dim, deep sable tones Rise from the organ of nothing With its flats and sharps of clouds and night. Ripples of moments Waves of hours and years Break on the shore of space To speak vague, soundless words To my soul, alone, shade among shades. Not even the unheard whisper Of the shadow of a breeze, But silence ponderous, peaceful, Afraid of its own self A mute hound at my feet. Who art thou? Whom do I know in this emptiness? Who has lived with me? And called me from the deeps of time? Recedes the bank of space; Fades away even the unfilled time, No light, no sound, not even a dream; Yet who speaks through silence? Who plays this music of night? Like an intangible river it flows With waves of shadow-sound Between banks of mountainous silence— O, who! who are you? Light in a world of shadows, Rainbow among sunless clouds, Bark of song on this sea of silence, O ferryman of the soul! O Word on Infinite's scroll. |
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