Silence And Stealth Of Days

Silence, and stealth of days! 'tis now

            Since thou art gone,

Twelve hundred hours, and not a brow

            But clouds hang on.

As he that in some cave's thick damp

            Lockt from the light,

Fixeth a solitary lamp,

            To brave the night,

And walking from his sun, when past

            That glim'ring ray

Cuts through the heavy mists in haste

            Back to his day,

So o'r fled minutes I retreat

            Unto that hour

Which show'd thee last, but did defeat

            Thy light, and power,

I search, and rack my soul to see

            Those beams again,

But nothing but the snuff to me

            Appeareth plain;

That dark and dead sleeps in its known

            And common urn,

But those fled to their Maker's throne

            There shine and burn;

O could I track them! but souls must

            Track one the other,

And now the spirit, not the dust,

            Must be thy brother.

Yet I have one Pearl by whose light

            All things I see,

And in the heart of earth and night

            Find heaven and thee.