In the silence of the night-time,

            In the grey and formless eve

When the thought is plagued with loveless

            Memories that it cannot leave,

When the dawn makes sudden beauty

            Of a peevish clouded sky,

And the rain is sobbing slowly

            And the wind makes weird reply,

Always comes her face before me

            And her voice is in my ear,

Beautiful and sad and cruel

            With the azure eyes austere.

Cloudy figure once so luminous

            With the light and life within

When the soul came rippling outwards

            And the red lips laughed at sin,

Com’st thou with that marble visage

            From what world instinct with pain

Where we pay the price of passion

            By a law our hearts disdain?

Cast it from thee, O thou goddess!

            Earning with a smile release

From these sad imaginations,

            Rise into celestial peace.

Travel from the loveless places

            That our mortal fears create,

Where thy natural heavens claim thee

            And the gods, thy brothers, wait.

Then descend to me grown radiant,

            Lighting up terrestrial ground

With the feet that brighten heaven

            When the mighty dance goes round  

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And the high Gods beating measure

            Tread the maze that keeps the stars

Circling in their luminous orbits

            Through the eternal thoroughfares.

All below is but confusion

            Of desires that strive and cry,

Some forbidden, some achieving

            Anguish after ecstasy.

But above our radiant station

            Is from which by doubt we fell,

Reaching only after Heaven

            And achieving only Hell.

Let the heart be king and master,

            Let the brain exult and toil,

Disbelieve in good and evil,

            God with Nature reconcile.

Therefore, O rebellious sweetness,

            Thou1tookst arms for joy and love.

There achieve them! Take possession

            Of our radiant seats above.                

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