The Two Spirits

First Spirit

O THOU, who plumed with strong desire Wouldst float above the earth, beware! A shadow tracks the flight of fire— Night is coming! Bright are the regions of the air, And among the winds and beams It were delight to wander there— Night is coming!

Second Spirit

The deathless stars are bright above; If I would cross the shade of night, Within my heart is the lamp of love, And that is day! And the moon will smile with gentle light On my golden plumes where’er they move; The meteors will linger round my flight, And make night day.

First Spirit

But if the whirlwinds of darkness waken Hail, and lightning, and stormy rain; See, the bounds of the air are shaken— Night is coming! The red swift clouds of the hurricane Yon declining sun have overtaken; The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain— Night is coming!

Second Spirit

I see the light, and I hear the sound; I’ll sail on the flood of the tempests dark, With the calm within and the light around Which makes night day: And then, when the gloom is deep and stark, Look from thy dull earth, slumber-bound; My moon-like flight thou then may’st mark On high, far away.

Some say there is a precipice Where one vast pine is frozen to ruin O’er piles of snow and chasms of ice ’Mid Alpine mountains; And that the languid storm pursuing That winged shape, for ever flies Round those hoar branches, aye renewing Its aëry fountains.

Some say, when nights are dry and clear, And the death-dews sleep on the morass, Sweet whispers are heard by the traveller, Which make night day; And a silver shape, like his early love, doth pass Up-borne by her wild and glittering hair, And when he awakes on the fragrant grass, He finds night day.

JOHN KEATS 1795–1821