Classic Poem

Silence and stealth of days! 'Tis now
Since thou art gone
Twelve hundred hours, and not a brow
But clouds hang on.
As he that in some cave's thick damp
Locked from the light,
Fixeth a solitary lamp
To brave the night,
And, walking from his sun, when past
That glimmering ray
Cuts through the heavy mists in haste
Back to his day,
So o'er fled minutes I retreat
Unto that hour
Which showed thee last but did defeat
Thy light and power.
I search and rack my soul to see
Those beams again,
But nothing but the snuff to me
Appeareth plain;
That, dark and dead, sleeps in its known
And common urn,
But those fled to their Maker's throne
There shine and burn;
O could I track them! But souls must
Track one the other,
And now the spirit, not the dust
Must be thy brother.
Yet I have one pearl by whose light
All things I see,
And in the heart of earth and night
Find Heaven and thee.