MASTER of life, the day is done; <br />My sun of life is sinking low; <br />I watch the hours slip one by one <br />And hark the night-wind and the snow. <br /> <br />And must Thou shut the morning out, <br />And dim the eye that loved to see; <br />Silence the melody and rout, <br />And seal the joys of earth for me? <br /> <br />And must Thou banish all the hope, <br />The large horizon's eagle-swim, <br />The splendour of the far-off slope <br />That ran about the world's great rim, <br /> <br />That rose with morning's crimson rays <br />And grew to noonday's gloried dome, <br />Melting to even's purple haze <br />When all the hopes of earth went home? <br /> <br />Yea, Master of this ruined house, <br />The mortgage closed, outruns the lease; <br />Long since is hushed the gay carouse, <br />And now the windowed lights must cease. <br /> <br />The doors all barred, the shutters up, <br />Dismantled, empty, wall and floor, <br />And now for one grim eve to sup <br />With Death, the bailiff, at the door. <br /> <br />Yea, I will take the gloomward road <br />Where fast the Arctic nights set in, <br />To reach the bourne of that abode <br />Which Thou hast kept for all my kin. <br /> <br />And all life's splendid joys forego, <br />Walled in with night and senseless stone, <br />If at the last my heart might know <br />Through all the dark one joy alone. <br /> <br />Yea, Thou mayst quench the latest spark <br />Of life's weird day's expectancy, <br />Roll down the thunders of the dark <br />And close the light of life for me; <br /> <br />Melt all the splendid blue above <br />And let these magic wonders die, <br />If Thou wilt only leave me, Love, <br />And Love's heart-brother, Memory. <br /> <br />Though all the hopes of every race <br />Crumbled in one red crucible, <br />And melted, mingled into space, <br />Yet, Master, Thou wert merciful.<br /><br />William Wilfred Campbell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-last-prayer-2/
