The Adventure of the Apocalypse

When ?

When shall my heart be broken

By the horizon-pull of the witcheried waves of twilight

Or the world-silencing slaughter that is sunset?

Till then the god is unwoken

Who dreams in the crushing splendour or the shy light

And grips the heart flame-gold or distantly duns it.

O ears, sink deep when you listen

To the downward sighing spiral of dead leaves

Or the waterfall dragging the mountain away!

Lose, little eyes, your glisten:

All shimmers, grandeurs, far plunges and near heaves

Find their own secrets in the nameless Night-Day

Wearing a crown that dazzles time aswoon,

Bearing a robe that darkens space asleep—

Locked in the heart, till a stifled sob is the moon

And the sun a tear we strive in vain to weep:

A pang of beauty thrown back from lips and eyes

To a Cave within that knows self-paradise!

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