Ah! I shall kill myself with dreams! <br />These dreams that softly lap me round <br />Through trance-like hours in which meseems <br />That I am swallowed up and drowned; <br />Drowned in your love, which flows o'er me <br />As o'er the seaweed flows the sea. <br /> <br />In watches of the middle night, <br />'Twixt vesper and 'twist matin bell, <br />With rigid arms and straining sight, <br />I wait within my narrow cell; <br />With muttered prayers, suspended will, <br />I wait your advent--statue-still. <br /> <br />Across the convent garden walls <br />The wind blows from the silver seas; <br />Black shadow of the cypress falls <br />Between the moon-meshed olive-trees; <br />Sleep-walking from their golden bowers, <br />Flit disembodied orange flowers. <br /> <br />And in God's consecrated house, <br />All motionless from head to feet, <br />My heart awaits her heavenly Spouse, <br />As white I lie on my white sheet; <br />With body lulled and soul awake, <br />I watch in anguish for your sake. <br /> <br />And suddenly, across the gloom, <br />The naked moonlight sharply swings; <br />A Presence stirs within the room, <br />A breath of flowers and hovering wings:-- <br />Your presence without form and void, <br />Beyond all earthly joys enjoyed. <br /> <br />My heart is hushed, my tongue is mute, <br />My life is centred in your will; <br />You play upon me like a lute <br />Which answers to its master's skill, <br />Till passionately vibrating, <br />Each nerve becomes a throbbing string. <br /> <br />Oh, incommunicably sweet! <br />No longer aching and apart, <br />As rain upon the tender wheat, <br />You pour upon my thirsty heart; <br />As scent is bound up in the rose, <br />Your love within my bosom glows.<br /><br />Mathilde Blind<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mystic-s-vision/
