Robert Laurence Binyon - Autumn Moonrise lyrics

Lamp that risest lone From thy secret place, Like a sleeper's face, Charged with thoughts unknown, Strange thoughts, unexpressed In thy brightening beam, Strangeness more than dream Upon earth e'er guessed! Strange thou gleam'st as some Eastern marble old, Scrawled with runes that hold Histories, yet are dumb. But thy viewless hand Out of whelming night Waves the woods to light, Summons up the land! Sea, that merged in sky; To its far bound shines; And thy touch defines Our infinity. Now the murmuring coast Glistens; rocks are there; And what most was bare Thou enrichest most. Far through granite caves Diving glide thy beams, Till the dark roof gleams Laced with hovering waves, O'er the white walls glide, Through the lattice creep, Where the lovers sleep, Bridegroom by his bride. Soft their wakened eyes From a deep bliss gaze On those marvellous rays New from Paradise. In the self--same hour, Whitening Russian plains, On sad exile trains Thou hast also power. No more kindly gloom Veils from them despair: Near and clear and bare They behold their doom. Bowed, they see their own Shadows on the snow, And the way they go, Endlessly alone: Aching, chained, footsore, Through the waste they wind, All their joy behind, Nought but grief before. O thou sleeper's face Whence hast thou this gift So much to uplift, And so much to abase? Lovers' happier dream, Exiles' heavier pain, Thou on each dost rain Beam on radiant beam! Changed in thy control, Though no leaf hath stirred, Though no breath was heard, Lie both world and soul.