After the fret and failure of this day, <br />And weariness of thought, O Mother Night, <br />Come with soft kiss to soothe our care away <br />And all our little tumults set to right; <br />Most pitiful of all death’s kindred fair, <br />Riding above us through the curtained air <br />On thy dusk car, thou scatterest to the earth <br />Sweet dreams and drowsy charms of tender might <br />And lovers’ dear delight before to-morrow’s birth. <br />Thus art thou wont thy quiet lands to leave <br />And pillared courts beyond the Milky Way, <br />Wherein thou tarriest all our solar day <br />While unsubstantial dreams before thee weave <br />A foamy dance, and fluttering fancies play <br />About thy palace in the silver ray <br />Of some far, moony globe. But when the hour, <br />The long-expected comes, the ivory gates <br />Open on noiseless hinge before thy bower <br />Unbidden, and the jewelled chariot waits <br />With magic steeds. Thou from the fronting rim <br />Bending to urge them, whilst thy sea-dark hair <br />Falls in ambrosial ripples o’er each limb, <br />With beautiful pale arms, untrammelled, bare <br />For horsemanship, to those twin chargers fleet <br />Dost give full rein across the fires that glow <br />In the wide floor of heaven, from off their feet <br />Scattering the powdery star-dust as they go. <br />Come swiftly down the sky, O Lady Night, <br />Fall through the shadow-country, O most kind, <br />Shake out thy strands of gentle dreams and light <br />For chains, wherewith thou still art used to bind <br />With tenderest love of careful leeches’ art <br />The bruised and weary heart <br />In slumber blind.<br /><br />Clive Staples Lewis<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/night-244/
