Classic Poem

WHEREIN NIGHT WITH HER GIFT OF SLEEP VISITS ALL SAVE HIM

It is the vigil dark-eyed silence keeps
By earth and heaven: each bird, each beast in chains
Of silk reposes; Night's black chariot reins
Glitter with stars; the waveless water sleeps.
I wake, brood, burn, shed tears: and though love weeps,
Its one dear reason still the heart retains;
War is the portion no grief, no wrath drains,
But in the thought of her a solace creeps.
Ah me! that sweet and bitter nourishment,
Strange twins, from one bright quenchless fountain come;
One magic hand can yield, or curb, content:
And so I live a deathless martyrdom;
A thousand deaths and lives each day repent —
Fate has not dropped her glass, her thunderous drum.