HEART OF THE NIGHT

From child to youth; from youth to arduous man;

From lethargy to fever of the heart;

From faithful life to dream-dowered days apart;

From trust to doubt; from doubt to brink of ban;—

Thus much of change in one swift cycle ran

Till now. Alas, the soul!— how soon must she

Accept her primal immortality,—

The flesh resume its dust whence it began?

O Lord of work and peace! O Lord of life!

O Lord, the awful Lord of will! though late,

Even yet renew this soul with duteous breath:

That when the peace is garnered in from strife,

The work retrieved, the will regenerate,

This soul may see thy face, O Lord of death!