Classic Poem

I trod the January snows. I paused. There were no winds, no clouds — —
no traces of the absent moon. I looked long at the stars.

The stars were flashing. From a swarthy blue that was boundless, many millions of stars were flashing — —
millions of miles distant,
millions of miles apart.
No one stood beside me.
No one anywhere under the stars awaited my approach. I murmured — —

" I am glad that no one stands at my elbow.
I am glad that all my cravings are buried in the snows.
I am glad that all my emotions are absent, with the winds, the clouds, the moon.
I am glad that they whom I have loved are as far off as the stars. "