Not till the wildman wind is shrill,
Howling upon the hill
In every wolfish tree, whose boisterous boughs,
Like desperate arms, gesture and beat the night,
And down huge clouds, in chasms of stormy white
The frightened moon hurries above the house,
Shall I lie down; and, deep,—
Letting the mad wind keep
Its shouting revel round me,— fall asleep.
Not till its dark halloo is hushed,
And where wild waters rushed,—
Like some hoofed terror underneath its whip
And spur of foam,— remains
A ghostly glass, hill-framed; whereover stains
Of moony mists and rains,
And stealthy starbeams, like vague specters, slip;
Shall I — with thoughts that take
Unto themselves the ache
Of silence as a sound — from sleep awake.