LAST NIGHT — AND THIS

Last night — how deep the darkness was!

And well I knew its depths, because

I waded it from shore to shore,

Thinking to reach the light no more.

She would not even touch my hand.—

The winds rose and the cedars fanned

The moon out, and the stars fled back

In heaven and hid — and all was black!

But ah! To-night a summons came,

Signed with a teardrop for a name,—

For as I wondering kissed it, lo,

A line beneath it told me so.

And now the moon hangs over me

A disk of dazzling brilliancy,

And every star-tip stabs my sight

With splintered glitterings of light!