Classic Poem

A darkness, like the middle of the night,
Clouds in the morn, and e'en the mid-day hours;
Men wander round, as if devoid of sight,
Or led astray by false, deluding powers!
The wise knew not its coming, nor can tell
Whence fell this darkness, like a plague on all;
In vain they seek by knowledge to dispel
The gloom, that shrouds the earth as with a pall.
So, in eclipse, the sun withdraws his light,
Or sheds a pale, and ineffectual ray;
The flowers close up, as at the approach of night,
And men, bewildered, wander from their way;
The stars appear, and with faint lustre burn,
Watching, from their far heights, the sun's return.

A darkness, like the middle of the night,
Clouds in the morn, and e'en the mid day hours;
Men wander round, as if devoid of sight,
Or led astray by false deluding powers.
The wise knew not its coming, nor can tell
Whence fell this darkness, like a plague, on all;
In vain they seek by knowledge to dispel
The gloom, that shrouds the earth as with a pall!
The astronomer the sun's eclipse foretells,
The day and hour, when quenched his glorious ray;
The moment, when his arrowy beam dispels
The sudden night, and brings returning day;
But who the dark eclipses of the mind
Can thus predict? by calculation find?

A darkness like the middle of the night
Clouds in the morn and e'en the mid-day hours;
Men wander round as if devoid of sight,
Or led astray by false deluding powers;
The wise knew not its coming, nor can tell
Whence fell this blackness like a plague on all;
Nor will it yield to e'en their strongest spell;
Nor heed their gods though on their names they call;
The hand that spread the veil alone dispels,
For this alone obeys the all-seeing God;
The night that fell where sin in splendor dwells,
Shall flee again when waves the obedient rod;
As mists that from the low, damp earth will fly,
When gains the sun upon the eastern sky.