The darkness of the trees at deep midnight
And sombreness of shadows in the lake;
A mountain in the starlight wide awake
Dreaming to Heaven with imperial might
Of lifted shoulders, huge against the bright
Bespattered jewelry of stars--the ache
Of silence, and the sobbing tides that break
From music. Slumbering cities--candle light
Snuffed in the flooding darkness, and the train
Of Queens that go to scaffold for a sin--
Or splash of blackness manifest of pain,
Hamlet among his court, a Harlequin
Of tragedies ... Mysterious ... And again
Venetian masks against a milky skin.
1917