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Home  »  The Book of Sorrow  »  Jessie Fremont O’Donnell (1860–1897)

Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.

‘I gaze into the dark’

Jessie Fremont O’Donnell (1860–1897)

I GAZE into the dark, O Love!

I gaze into the dark,

The creeping shadows chill me: and the Night,

With wide-outreaching arms, holds thee afar.

O yearning eyes! Your love, ’midst wondrous light,

More fair than falls from moon-ray or from star,

Smiles out into the dark.

I reach into the dark, O Love!

I reach into the dark.

I cannot find thee; and my groping hands

Touch only memories and phantom shapes.

O empty arms! Be glad of those sweet lands

Wherein your love all loneliness escapes,

And smiles into the dark.

I call into the dark, O Love!

I call into the dark.

There comes from out the hush below, above,

No answer but my own quick-fluttered breath.

O doubting heart! Dost thou not know thy love,

Across the awful silentness of death

Smiles at thee through the dark?