Hath Hope Kept Vigil

Frail lilies that beneath the dust so long Have lain in cerements of musk and slumber, While over you hath fled the viewless throng Of hours and winds and voices out of number.

Pulseless and dead in that enswathing dark Hath hope kept vigil at your core of being? Did the germ know what unextinguished spark Held these white blooms within its heart unseeing?

Once more into the dark when I go down, And deep and deaf the black clay seals my prison, Will the numbed soul foreknow how light shall crown With strong young ecstasy its life new risen?