The Two Spirits: An Allegory
FIRST SPIRIT:O thou, who plumed with strong desireWouldst float above the earth, beware!A Shadow tracks thy flight of fire--Night is coming!Bright are the regions of the air,And among the winds and beamsIt were delight to wander there--Night is coming!
SECOND SPIRIT:The deathless stars are bright above;If I would cross the shade of night,Within my heart is the lamp of love,And that is day!And the moon will smile with gentle lightOn my golden plumes where'er they move;The meteors will linger round my flight,And make night day.
FIRST SPIRIT:But if the whirlwinds of darkness wakenHail, and lightning, and stormy rain;See, the bounds of the air are shaken--Night is coming!The red swift clouds of the hurricaneYon declining sun have overtaken,The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain--Night is coming!
SECOND SPIRIT:I see the light, and I hear the sound;I'll sail on the flood of the tempest darkWith the calm within and the light aroundWhich makes night day:And thou, when the gloom is deep and stark,Look from thy dull earth, slumber-bound,My moon-like flight thou then mayst markOn high, far away.
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Some say there is a precipiceWhere one vast pine is frozen to ruinO'er piles of snow and chasms of iceMid Alpine mountains;And that the languid storm pursuingThat winged shape, for ever fliesRound those hoar branches, aye renewingIts aery fountains.
Some say when nights are dry and clear,And the death-dews sleep on the morass,Sweet whispers are heard by the traveller,Which make night day:And a silver shape like his early love doth passUpborne by her wild and glittering hair,And when he awakes on the fragrant grass,He finds night day.
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