I STOOD in the deep of midnight,
The Bear flamed in the sky,
The city hid its sorrows
And the forest breathed her sigh,
The burglars in the prison
And the beggars in the park
Drew their arms across their faces
And cried into the dark —
‘O love whom you wish, no matter,
Love is a silver stream
That leaps and finally wastes away
On the wrinkled sands of dream!’
The battleships in the distance
Groaned with their ghostly freight,
And the faces in the tenements
Were pinched and pale with hate:
The tattered skirts and trousers
Hung loose by every bed
And the pots and pans and kettles
Screamed at each hungry head —
‘O love whom you wish, no matter,
O love your whole life long
Or fear will kiss and kill you
With her slow, exhausting song!’
And I stared far down the valley
All pierced with coal-black caves,
And I stared across the city
And the street was a row of graves,
While the ghosts of the long forgotten
Slipped softly through the wood
And whispered through the willows
In the valley where I stood —
‘O love whom you wish, no matter,
Soon you’ll be dry and dead,
O love before you’ve withered
And delight has turned to dread!’
And my arms grew huge with longing
And the willows were on fire,
And the wild and beckoning ocean
Was howling with desire:
I had an endless question
To ask the sea and sky,
I cried through the black of midnight
But there was no reply,
And the Milky Way leaned softly
Like a flowering almond grove;
There was nothing under the heavens
That did not blaze with love.