earth's daily work! Fools alone recognise thee not, and know of no
sleep beyond the shadow which in that twilight of the actual Night
thou throwest in compassion over us. They feel thee not in the
vine's golden flood, in the almond-tree's marvel oil, and in the
brown juice of the manna; they know not that it is thou that
enhaloest the tender maiden's breast, and makest a heaven of her
bosom; conceive not that out of histories of old thou steppest forth
an opener of heaven, and bearest the key to the abodes of the
blessed, the silent messenger of unending mysteries.



III.



Once, when I was shedding bitter tears, when my hope streamed away
dissolved in sorrow, and I stood alone beside the barren hill, that
concealed in narrow gloomy space the form of my existence--alone, as
never solitary yet hath been, urged by an agony beyond expression,
powerless, no more than a mere thought of sorrow; as I looked around
me there for aid, could not advance, could not retire, and hung with
incessant longing upon fleeting, failing life;--then came there from
the blue distance, from the heights of my former happiness, a thin
veil of the twilight gloom, and in a moment burst the bondage of the
fetters of the birth of light. Then fled the glories of the earth,
and all my sorrow with them; sadness melted away in a new, an
unfathomable world; thou, inspiration of the Night, slumber of
heaven, camest over me; the spot whereon I stood rose insensibly on
high; above the spot soared forth my released and new-born spirit.