COMFORTABLE LIGHT

Most comfortable Light,

Light of the small lamp burning up the night,

With dawn enleagued against the beaten dark;

Pure golden perfect spark;

Or sudden wind-bright flame,

That but the strong-handed wind can urge or tame;

Chill loveliest light the kneeling clouds between,

Silverly serene;

Comfort of happy light,

That mouse-like leaps amid brown leaves, cheating sight;

Clear naked stars, burning with swift intense

Earthward intelligence;—

Sensitive, single

Points in the dark inane that purely tingle

With eager fire, pouring night's circles through

Their living blue;

Dark light still waters hold;

Broad silver moonpath trodden into gold:

Candle-flame glittering through the traveller's night —

Most comfortable light....

And lovelier, the eye

Where light from darkness shines unfathomably,

Light secret, clear, shallow, profound, known, strange,

Constant alone in change:—

Not that wild light that turns

Hunted from dying eyes when the last fire burns;

O, not that bitter light of wounded things,

When bony anguish springs

Sudden, intolerable;

Nor light of mad eyes gleaming up from hell....

Come not again, wild light! Shine not again,

Hill-flare of pain!

But thou, most holy light....

Not the noon blaze that stings, too fiercely bright,

Not that unwinking stare of shameless day;

But thou, the gray,

Nun-like and silent, still,

Fine-breathed on many an eastern bare green hill;

Keen light of gray eyes, cool rain, and stern spears;

Sad light, but not to tears:—

— O, comfort thou of eyes

Watching expectant from chill northern skies,

Excellent joy for lids heavy with night —

Strange with delight!