The Night is Darkening Round Me

Why ask to know what date what clime

There dwelt our own humanity

Power-worshippers from earliest time

Foot-kissers of triumphant crime

Crushers of helpless misery

Crushing down Justice honouring Wrong

If that be feeble this be strong

Shedders of blood shedders of tears

Self-cursers avid of distress

Yet Mocking heaven with senseless prayers

For mercy on the merciless

It was the autumn of the year

When grain grows yellow in the ear

Day after day from noon to noon,

That August’s sun blazed bright as June

But we with unregarding eyes

Saw panting earth and glowing skies

No hand the reaper’s sickle held

Nor bound the ripe sheaves in the field

Our corn was garnered months before,

Threshed out and kneaded-up with gore

Ground when the ears were milky sweet

With furious toil of hoofs and feet

I doubly cursed on foreign sod

Fought neither for my home nor God

Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.

What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?

More glory and more grief than I can tell:

The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling

Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell.

All hushed and still within the house

Without – all wind and driving rain

But something whispers to my mind

Through rain and [through the] wailing wind

Shall Earth no more inspire thee,

Thou lonely dreamer now?

Since passion may not fire thee

Shall Nature cease to bow?

Thy mind is ever moving

In regions dark to thee;

Recall its useless roving –

Come back and dwell with me –

I know my mountain breezes

Enchant and soothe thee still –

I know my sunshine pleases

Despite thy wayward will –

When day with evening blending

Sinks from the summer sky,

I’ve seen thy spirit bending

In fond idolatry –

I’ve watched thee every hour –

I know my mighty sway –

I know my magic power

To drive thy griefs away –

Few hearts to mortals given

On earth so wildly pine

Yet none would ask a Heaven

More like this Earth than thine –

Then let my winds caress thee –

Thy comrade let me be –

Since nought beside can bless thee

Return and dwell with me –

The night is darkening round me

The wild winds coldly blow

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot cannot go

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow

And the storm is fast descending

And yet I cannot go

Clouds beyond clouds above me

Wastes beyond wastes below

But nothing drear can move me

I will not cannot go

I’ll come when thou art saddest

Laid alone in the darkened room

When the mad day’s mirth has vanished

And the smile of joy is banished

From evening’s chilly gloom

I’ll come when the heart’s [real] feeling

Has entire unbiased sway

And my influence o’er thee stealing

Grief deepening joy congealing

Shall bear thy soul away

Listen ’tis just the hour

The awful time for thee

Dost thou not feel upon thy soul

A flood of strange sensations roll

Forerunners of a sterner power

Heralds of me

I would have touched the heavenly key

That spoke alike of bliss and thee

I would have woke the entrancing song

But its words died upon my tongue

And then I knew that hallowed strain

Could never speak of joy again

And then I felt

In summer’s mellow midnight

A cloudless moon shone through

Our open parlour window

And rosetrees wet with dew

I sat in silent musing –

The soft wind waved my hair

It told me Heaven was glorious

And sleeping Earth was fair –

I needed not its breathing

To bring such thoughts to me

But still it whispered lowly

‘How dark the woods will be! –

‘The thick leaves in my murmur

Are rustling like a dream,

And all their myriad voices

Instinct with spirit seem’

I said, ‘Go gentle singer,

Thy wooing voice is kind

But do not think its music

Has power to reach my mind –

‘Play with the scented flower,

The young tree’s supple bough –

And leave my human feelings

In their own course to flow’

The Wanderer would not leave me

Its kiss grew warmer still –

‘O come,’ it sighed so sweetly

‘I’ll win thee ’gainst thy will –

‘Have we not been from childhood friends?

Have I not loved thee long?

As long as thou hast loved the night

Whose silence wakes my song?

‘And when thy heart is laid at rest

Beneath the church-yard stone

I shall have time enough to mourn

And thou to be alone’ –

In frozen mist arrayed –

The blue bell cannot charm me now

The heath has lost its bloom

The violets in the glen below

They yield no sweet perfume

But though I mourn the heather-bell

’Tis better far, away

I know how fast my tears would swell

To see it smile today

And that wood flower that hides so shy

Beneath the mossy stone

Its balmy scent and dewy eye

’Tis not for them I moan

It is the slight and stately stem

The blossom’s silvery blue

The buds hid like a sapphire gem

In sheaths of emerald hue

’Tis these that breathe upon my heart

A calm and softening spell

That if it makes the tear-drop start

Has power to soothe as well

For these I weep, so long divided

Through winter’s dreary day

In longing weep – but most when guided

On withered banks to stray

If chilly then the light should fall

Adown the dreary sky

And gild the dank and darkened wall

With transient brilliancy

How do I yearn, how do I pine

For the time of flowers to come

And turn me from that fading shine

To mourn the fields of home –

Woods you need not frown on me

Spectral trees that so dolefully

Shake your heads in the dreary sky

You need not mock so bitterly

My thoughtful Comforter?

And yet a little longer speak,

Calm this resentful mood;

And while the savage heart grows meek,

For other token do not seek,

But let the tear upon my cheek

Evince my gratitude!

My spirit drank a mingled tone,

Of seraph’s song, and demon’s moan;

What my soul bore, my soul alone

Within itself may tell!

Like a soft air, above a sea,

Tossed by the tempest’s stir;