STAR, on this sleeping town
Cast your unveering rays!
The clocks in all the towers
Mutter their heartless hours,
The gardens nod, and deep
In her responsive sleep
Shudders the feathery dove.
O lift your eyes and gaze
Across the night, my love,
Look, how the deathless fires
All sprinkled through the skies
Infect each mortal mind
And the blue planets send
Down to our winking eyes
Hopes, dreams, desires
Which all our separate hearts
Gather, and for one single hour
Flush into one vast flower:
Hear, how the streaming seas
Their agonizing knell
Enormously dispel
Each hour, and on their knees
The night’s drowned lovers sing
Of an imploring love
And through the corals move,
Yet of their melodies
We hear nothing, nothing.
Listen, the silence falls,
Music from all the walls
Withdraws her healing hands
And gently, fearfully
Upon the cooling sands
Sinks the uncanny sea.
Ah, sleep, sorrow and death
Falter and vanish
At his incalculable breath!
Through her old miles the moon
Scatters her snowy light
And knowing it is late,
The illusive night now past,
Still waits as we still wait
For the momentous noon
Our curious hearts at last
To brighten; and to bless
Our blinding loneliness.