I wake from daydreams to this real night.

From writing a great work with patient plan 45
To justify the ways of God to man,
And show how ill must fade and perish quite:
I wake from daydreams to this real night.

From desperate fighting with a little band
Against the powerful tyrants of our land, 50
To free our brethren in their own despite:
I wake from daydreams to this real night.

Thus, challenged by that warder sad and stern,
Each one responded with his countersign,
Then entered the cathedral; and in turn 55
I entered also, having given mine;
But lingered near until I heard no more,
And marked the closing of the massive door.



XIII

Of all things human which are strange and wild
This is perchance the wildest and most strange,
And showeth man most utterly beguiled,
To those who haunt that sunless City's range;
That he bemoans himself for aye, repeating 5
How Time is deadly swift, how life is fleeting,
How naught is constant on the earth but change.