Classic Poem

OUT OF THE Wilderness .

A NGEL that ever leanest at the portal
Above the shell where lustral water lies
Deeper than depth of the reflected eyes
That are not mortal,

I front my death. The liberating hour
Is come. I sought and never found reply, —
In tortured consciousness and baffled power
Forgotten, die.

A stranger that has offered to thy heaven
Spare vintaging of earth grown wise too late,
A watcher of the planets that are seven
Turns to thy gate.

I strove with beasts, expatriate and lonely.
My fault was great, and great mine agony.
I never called light darkness. For this only
Pray unto thee.

At length, before untried abysms cover
Insentience, reconciling clod with clod,
An instant come to me as to thy lover,
Angel of God!