Is thine hour come to wake, O slumbering Night? <br /> Hath not the Dawn a message in thine ear? <br /> Though thou be stone and sleep, yet shalt thou hear <br />When the word falls from heaven--Let there be light. <br />Thou knowest we would not do thee the despite <br /> To wake thee while the old sorrow and shame were near; <br /> We spake not loud for thy sake, and for fear <br />Lest thou shouldst lose the rest that was thy right, <br />The blessing given thee that was thine alone, <br />The happiness to sleep and to be stone: <br /> Nay, we kept silence of thee for thy sake <br />Albeit we knew thee alive, and left with thee <br />The great good gift to feel not nor to see; <br /> But will not yet thine Angel bid thee wake?<br /><br />Algernon Charles Swinburne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-san-lorenzo/
