DARKNESS, blind darkness every way, With low illuminings of light; Hints, intimations of the day That never breaks to full, clear light. High longing for a larger light Urges us onward o'er life's hill; Low fear of darkness and of night Presses us back and holds us still. So while to Hope we give one hand, The other hand to Fear we lend; And thus 'twixt high and low we stand, Waiting and wavering to the end. Eager for some ungotten good, We mind the false and miss the true; Leaving undone the things we would, We do the things we would not do. For ill in good and good in ill, The verity, the thing that seems, -- They run into each other still, Like dreams in truth, like truth in dreams. Seeing the world with sin imbued, We trust that in the eternal plan Some little drop of brightest blood Runs through the darkest heart of man. Living afar from what is near, Uplooking while we downward tend; In light and shadow, hope and fear, We sin and suffer to the end. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 11 by CONRAD AIKEN THE BLACK RUNNER by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WORDS INTO WORDS WON'T GO by CLARENCE MAJOR FOR THE NEW YEAR by EDWIN MARKHAM BLACK EAGLE RETURNS TO ST. JOE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |