To Darkness

Darkness! O, that thou wouldst bear me

On swiftest wings, black and despairing,

Unto the blessed stoop of Death’s sad door

To rest at last below the loam

In peaceful sleep, sorrows unknown,

Blanketed ‘neath the green and grassy sward.

‘Stead thou troublest and torment me,

Shrouding me with fears in plenty,

Seizing mine heart in cold and awful dread

’Til ere long I’m left romancing

Dismal, dark and morbid fancies

Such as should not tarry in one’s head.

I court the river’s whelming flood,

The hangman’s noose, the razor’s blood

As lovers strong and quick to bear me home;

Yet from their beckoning I fly—

Too dead to live, too weak to die—

Falling upon my couch with woeful moans.

And so the battle carries on,

The bleakest night arouses dawn

And thence a light for tried and weary souls;

Though shadows mingled much therein

Do dampen verve and provoke sin,

Yet tainted rays thus bode of something more:

Day which cometh; Everlasting!

Into which the Darkness passing

Shall fall—Deceased!—never to rise again.

The King hath slain this mighty foe

For perfect light doth from Him flow,

Guiding home His lost and suff’ring kin.

Though beset by flesh and devils,

Burdened hearts in Him doth settle

Finding once for all their blessed rest.

Unto this Rock my soul doth cling;

My heart rejoice; my spirit sing;

Until at last He comes to bear me home.

And, lo, Death’s clutches in the end

Hath turned into my dearest friend,

Sent forth in joy to bid me hence depart

Into my King’s loving embrace

To look at last upon His face

And drive the Darkness finally from my heart.