Page:Poems Craik.djvu/162

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144
WINTER MOONLIGHT.
  Far, far away;
Now as black as a heart where strange is
  Joy, night or day.

Wondrous moonlight, unlike all moonlights
  Since I was born;
That on a hundred, bright as noonlights,
  Looks in slow scorn,—
Moonlights where the old vine-leaves quiver,
Moonlights shining on vale and river,
  Where old paths lie;
Moonlights—Night, blot their like forever
  Out of the sky!

Hail, new moonlight, fierce, wild, and stormy,
  Wintry and bold!
Hail, sharp wind, that can strengthen, warm me,
  If ne'er so cold!
Not chance-driven this deluge rages,
One doth pour out and One assuages;
  Under His hand
Drifting, Noah-like, into the ages shall touch land.