By the Sea

Ah ! wherefore do I haunt the shadowy tomb,
My joyless days and nights among the dead ?
Know you not He, my radiant Sun, who fled,
With hope uncertain soothes yon awful gloom
Afar, upon the weltering sea's wan lead ?
Behold ! faint, tremulous, ghostly gleam illume
The unrevealing mystery of Doom,
Ash-pale dumb wastes, impenetrable, dread,
O'erwhelming purple incumbent o'er the coast.
Into the Presence-Chamber of dim Death
He hath been summoned ! and I hold my post
Here on the threshold, thirsty for one breath
Released from yonder ! Leave me ! I love my night.
More than abounding pulses of your light !