Songs and Sonnets (Coleman)/Sanctuary

by Helena Jane Coleman

For works with similar titles, see Sanctuary.

SANCTUARY.

 

Within the shelter of thy calm, O Night,
I loose the garish vestures of the day,
With trembling hand unbind and fling away
The cap and bells that made the crowd's delight;
Screened from the world's uncomprehending sight,
Deep in thy healing silences I lay
The bruised and fettered soul that doth but pray
To be encompassed by the Infinite.

Receive my tears, O Night, and with thy space,
Thy unimpassioned vastness, cover me;
Make me to find my natural, lowly place—
Become once more a child, and learn the mood
Of larger things, until obedient, free,
I lose myself within thy magnitude.