Poems (Craik)/Winter Moonlight
WINTER MOONLIGHT.
OUD-VOICED night, with the wild wind blowing Many a tune; Stormy night, with white rain-clouds going Over the moon; Mystic night, that each minute changes, Now as blue as the mountain-ranges Far, far away; Now as black as a heart where strange is Joy, night or day. Wondrous moonlight, unlike all moonlights Since I was born; That on a hundred, bright as noonlights, Looks in slow scorn,—Moonlights where the old vine-leaves quiver, Moonlights shining on vale and river, Where old paths lie; Moonlights—Night, blot their like forever Out of the sky!
Hail, new moonlight, fierce, wild, and stormy, Wintry and bold! Hail, sharp wind, that can strengthen, warm me, If ne'er so cold! Not chance-driven this deluge rages, One doth pour out and One assuages; Under His hand Drifting, Noah-like, into the ages shall touch land.