Within the hollow silence of the night <br />I lay awake and listened. I could hear <br />Planet with punctual planet chiming clear, <br />And unto star star cadencing aright. <br />Nor these alone: cloistered from deafening sight, <br />All things that are, made music to my ear: <br />Hushed woods, dumb caves, and many a soundless mere, <br />With Arctic mains in rigid sleep locked tight. <br />But ever with this chant from shore and sea, <br />From singing constellation, humming thought, <br />And life through time's stops blowing variously, <br />A melancholy undertone was wrought; <br />And from its boundless prison-house I caught <br />The awful wail of lone Eternity.<br /><br />Alfred Austin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-sleepless-night-4/
