was gone as
a dream half dreamed.
The glory, the terror, the passion that made of the midnight a
miracle, died,
Not slain at a stroke, nor in gradual reluctance abated of power
and of pride;
With strong swift subsidence, awful as power that is wearied of
power upon earth,
As a God that were wearied of power upon heaven, and were fain of a
new God's birth,
The might of the night subsided: the tyranny kindled in darkness
fell:
And the sea and the sky put off them the rapture and radiance of
heaven and of hell.
The waters, heaving and hungering at heart, made way, and were
wellnigh fain,
For the ship that had fought them, and wrestled, and revelled in
labour, to cease from her pain.
And an end was made of it: only remembrance endures of the glad
loud strife;
And the sense that a rapture so royal may come not again in the
passage of life.

THE LAKE OF GAUBE

The sun is lord and god, sublime, serene,
And sovereign on the mountains: earth and air
Lie prone in passion, blind with bliss unseen
By force of sight and might of rapture, fair
As dreams that die and know not what they were.
The lawns, the gorges, and the peaks, are one
Glad glory, thrilled with sense of unison
In strong compulsive silence of the sun.

Flowers dense and keen as midnight stars aflame
And living things of light like flames in flower
That glance and flash as though no hand might tame
Lightnings whose life outshone their stormlit hour
And played and laughed on earth, with all their power
Gone, and with all their joy of life made long
And harmless as the lightning life of song,
Shine sweet like stars when darkness feels them strong.

The deep mild purple flaked with moonbright gold
That makes the scales seem flowers of hardened light,
The flamelike tongue, the feet that noon leaves cold,
The kindly trust in man, when once the sight
Grew less than strange, and faith bade fear take flight,
Outlive the little harmless life that shone
And gladdened eyes that loved it, and was gone
Ere love might fear that fear had looked thereon.

Fear held the bright thing hateful, even as fear,
Whose name is one with hate and horror