Poems (May)/Unrest
For works with similar titles, see Unrest.
UNREST.
Rest for awhile! I'm tempest-tost to-day. Bar out the sunshine. Let importunate life Beating for ever with impatient hand My soul's closed portals, only rouse within Dull, dreamy echoes! In a forest calm Builds sleep, the white dove. As a bird she rides The lulled waves of the soul. To-day, my thoughts Hunt me like hounds; the very prayer for peace Scares peace away; my senses, wide awake,Watch for the touch that thrills them: every sound Falls through the listening air unscabbarded; And if sleep comes, 'tis but a transient dream That flits betwixt me and the light of life, Alighting never. Oh, sweet chrism of God! Oh, balm and oil by Heaven's white ministers Laid with a blessing on the gates of sense! Baptismal font from whence our bodies rise Regenerate! cool, way-side shadow flung Over the paths of toil! I am athirst,Fevered and weary of my own worn self; Strengthen me with thy strength! Lo, where she stands. Sleep, the beloved, and mocks me with her beauty! Her hands lie clasped around a lamp alight Burning faint incense; from her zone unbound Dark folds trail silently; the poppies wreathed Above her temples, bursting, over-ripe, Drop with her motion. She is fair and calm, And dreams, like cherubs, with bright restless wings Cling to her sweeping robes. Let her draw near, Laying her dewy lips upon my brow, Twining me with soft movement in her arms,And there shall pass a fluttering through my sense, Leaf-like vibration, and my soul, as one Who drifts out seaward, seeing the dim shore Receding slow, hearing the voice of waves Call to him fainter, shall float guideless on,Rocked into slumber; dream effacing dream,Thought widening around thought, till all grows vague.