Invocations

O song in the nightingale's throat, O music,
Dropt as it fell by a falling star,—
All of the silence is filled with thy pain,
Listening till it shall echo again.
O song in the nightingale's throat, O music,
Thou art the soul of the silence afar!

O space of the moon in the starless heaven,
Raining a whiteness on moorland and sea,—
Falling as lightly and purely as dew,
All of the shadow thou filterest through;
O space of the moon in the starless heaven,
Surely the night is the shadow of thee!

O silence of Death, O world of darkness,
When over me the last shadow shall fall,
Holdest thou safe in the night all around
Any moon to arise, any music to sound?
O silence of Death, O world of darkness,
Say, shall we feel thee or know thee at all?