Below the somnolence of prayer, <br />Under languid visions I <br />Hear the passions surge and cry: <br />Lust with lust is warring there. <br /> <br />Thro' the lassitude of dreams <br />Shines the moon as thro' a mesh; <br />And the wandering joy of flesh <br />Still on pestilent beaches gleams. <br /> <br />Under ever-shrouded skies, <br />Thirsting for their starry fires, <br />Thro' my veins I hear desires <br />Toward the green horizon rise. <br /> <br />Evil fondnesses I hear <br />Blackly surging through my mind. <br />Phantom marshes vanish blind <br />Sudden on the sky-line drear. <br /> <br />O Lord, thy wrath will slay me soon: <br />Have pity on me, Lord, I pray! <br />Sweating and sick, O let me stray <br />Thro' pastures glimmering in the moon. <br /> <br />For now, O Lord, the time is nigh <br />To rase the hemlock with the steel, <br />Whose moon my secret hopes reveal <br />Green as a serpent in the sky; <br /> <br />And the plague of dreams mine eyes <br />Smites, and all its sins subdue, <br />And the rustling fountains blue <br />Toward the sovereign moon arise.<br /><br />Maurice Polydore-Marie-Bernard Maeterlinck<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/night-prayer/
