I'm in the Dark

"I'm in the dark!" cried little Josephine,

A saucy maiden of but summers three;

The lamp was out, the grey dawn yet unseen—

"I'm in the dark! I'm in the dark!" said she.

"I'm in the dark!" Yet fear not, little one,

Those are beside thee who for thee would die;

The night, midwinter deep, will soon be gone,

And the glad day stand in the eastern sky.

Light is thy wish, and in that wish we share—

"Light, light, more light!" "O Lord, that I may see!"

Some, for unholy uses make the prayer,

And some, that they the nearer heaven may be.

Some would uplift the curtain of the year,

And clutch its secrets with irreverent hand,

That barn and press may burst with autumn gear,

Or they among earth's foremost princes stand.

And some would lift the veil of flesh, and see

If all be real on the other side,

If truth be spoken of the One in Three,

Or if the seers of Jewry raved and lied.

And some, more happy, of the night complain,

"It is far spent, and yet there is no day;"

Weary and sad they watch the window-pane—

"When will He come? Oh, why so long away?"

"I'm in the dark!" My darling, so are all,

Save those blest spirits who have fought and won;

Light shines upon them there behind the pall,

Light uncreated, brighter than the sun.

"I'm in the dark!" Ah me, that wild lament

Will one day be the ruined spirits' wail,

When all the lamps of love and grace are spent,

And not one ray to pierce hell's awful veil!

Like thine, my child, our terrors and our cares

Are of mere trifles, sickness, want, and pain.

A holier fear, in answer to our prayers,

Give, Lord, and light to make the highway plain;

Light, as we need it, step by step to tread

The road to us allotted, strait and steep,

The thorny waste with cloud and storm o'erspread,

Then death's drear pass, and heaven's all-crystal keep.