The Departure

The night wears on, the lawns are grey with dew,
The Easter of the dawn will soon be here:
And I must leave the happy world I knew,
And front the Heaven I worship and I fear.

Dawn that in awe and trembling I desire,
Bloom in the skies as flaming and as bright
As Enoch saw the chariot-wheels of fire
Divide the darkness of the desert night.

Ah, when beside that palm tree in the sand
The fiery swiftness trembled, did his will
Grow faint, to leave the long familiar land?
Or did he feel a dizzier terror still
Lest, like a dream, that chariot should be gone
And leave him in the wilderness alone?