– 54 –

Nor’-West Night

A dull haze hangs heavily about the night-watches;
A veiled star trembles in the obscurity of my vision;
The frail young moon withdraws her furtive lamp.

Now low, now loud, moans the night-long nor’-wester
Let loose upon us from outer caverns of darkness,
Bellowing wild as one in torment, now lulled, now mute.

Wail of wind takes words in burden of dark menace:
Baseless and soon to be dissolved is the great cosmos;
The planetary fabric endures but a short space.

This lethal dirge drugs me, melting my limitations;
I lean upon the liberation, yet do not lose myself;
I look into the utmost negation of the abyss.

But at dawn, exhausted, north-west wind gives over,
Gives way to silence and soft adverting noises,
Shadowy rodents nibbling the dim fringes of night.

Anticipation takes hold the while these tremulous moments
Prepare us for the familiar, and shaken from trances
Of wind-bewitched night-time, I am hearing, awake,

– 55 –

Cock-crow from a sequestered shelter, faint and fitful,
And far-off nagging of dogs obeying trade-bound drover
Very early afoot on some hill-winding road—

Life-cries; and now the esteemed music I have listened for.…
It is thou, minikin! thou, minstrel mite, my soothsayer:
There shall be mirth, there shall be weeping awhile,
but no dread.