Poems (Henley)/Midsummer midnight skies

by William Ernest Henley

X

Midsummer midnight skies,Midsummer midnight influences and airs,The shining, sensitive silver of the seaTouched with the strange-hued blazonings of dawn;And all so solemnly still I seem to hearThe breathing of Life and Death,The secular Accomplices,Renewing the visible miracle of the world.

The wistful starsShine like good memories. The young morning windBlows full of unforgotten hoursAs over a region of roses. Life and DeathSound on—sound on. . .. And the night magical,Troubled yet comforting, thrillsAs if the Enchanted Castle at the heartOf the wood's dark wondermentSwung wide his valves, and filled the dim sea-banksWith exquisite visitants: Words fiery-hearted yet, dreams and desiresWith living looks intolerable, regretsWhose voice comes as the voice of an only childHeard from the grave: shapes of a Might-Have-Been—Beautiful, miserable, distraught—The Law no man may baffle denied and slew.

The spell-bound ships stand as at gazeTo let the marvel by. The grey road glooms. . . .Glimmers . . . goes out . . . and there, O, there where it fades,What grace, what glamour, what wild will,Transfigure the shadows? Whose,Heart of my heart, Soul of my soul, but yours?

Ghosts—ghosts—the sapphirine airTeems with them even to the gleaming endsOf the wild day-spring! Ghosts,Everywhere—everywhere—till I and youAt last—dear love, at last!—Are in the dreaming, even as Life and Death,Twin-ministers of the unoriginal Will,