The Dark Night

I DEPARTED in the darkness
With the pains of love oppressed,
Happy lot ! for none observed me ;
All my house was then at rest.

By the ladder that is secret,
In the darkness on I pressed,
Through the night, disguised in safety,
All my house was then at rest.

Unobserved and unobserving
In the silent blissful night ;
And in my heart the fire burning
Was my only guide and light.
To the place where He was waiting.

Safely guided on the way
On I went ; the light was brighter
Than the sunshine of mid-day.
Night that led to my Beloved, —
Guide and light upon the way —

And made us one ; night more lovely
Than the dawn of coming day.
On my breast with flowers covered,
Which for Him alone I kept,
I caressed Him ; and the cedars
Waving fanned Him while He slept.
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When His tresses were disordered
By the motion of the air,
Then I fainted, and He struck me
With His hand so soft and fair.

Self-forgetting, there I rested
On my love reclined my head,
All anxieties discarded
Mid the lilies round me spread.