A SONG IN THE NIGHT.

I would I were an angel strong, An angel of the sun, hasting along!

I would I were just come awake, A child outbursting from night's dusky brake!

Or lark whose inward, upward fate Mocks every wall that masks the heavenly gate!

Or hopeful cock whose clarion clear Shrills ten times ere a film of dawn appear!

Or but a glowworm: even then My light would come straight from the Light of Men!

I am a dead seed, dark and slow: Father of larks and children, make me grow.