Poems of Sentiment and Imagination/My Soul is Dark
"MY SOUL IS DARK."
Ever down Time's rapid river,
Toward the distant, dim Forever,
Ceasing not, and ceasing never—
From this mortal shore,
Is our life forever sliding,
Gliding still, and ever gliding,
With no pause, and no abiding,
Till Time's tide is o'er.
I am sitting in the glimmer
Of the twilight growing dimmer,
As the stars begin to shimmer
Through the darkening blue;
And my soul is sad to weeping,
With the memories 'tis keeping,
Memories that know no sleeping,
No nepenthean dew.
Life's frail bark is onward drifting,
Where care's stormy winds are shifting,
And no cloud of darkness lifting
Lets the light shine through;
Backward do I look with yearning,
My sad soul intensely burning,
But for me there is no turning—
Onward I must go.
Onward borne, but backward looking,
While my anguished soul is brooking
All the gentle, sad rebuking
Of the Past's dim face;
Forms from memory’s shore entreating,
Beckon me unto their meeting,
But I can not—farther fleeting
From each dear embrace.
Lo! the parting distance groweth,
And the river deeper floweth,
And the sky no signal showeth
All is dark and drear;
Without oar or pilot floating—
Fearful is such lonely boating,
Where, unseen, the ear is noting
Mighty depths a-near!
Hark! I hear the river's pouring,
Mingling with the ocean's roaring—
God! I lift to Thee imploring
My benighted heart;
Be thou with me on life's river,
Guide me to the great Forever—
Light, and Help, and Glory ever,
Thou my Pharos art!