Words in the Night + 

I woke at midnight, and my heart, + 

My beating heart, said this to me: + 

Thou seest the moon, how calm and bright! + 

The world is fair by day and night, + 

But what is that to thee? + 

One touch to me, down dips the light + 

Over the land and sea. + 

All is mine, all is my own! + 

Toss the purple fountain high! + 

The breast of man is a vat of stone; + 

I am alive, I, only I! + 

One little touch and all is dark⁠— + 

The winter with its sparkling moons, + 

The spring with all her violets, + 

The crimson dawns and rich sunsets, + 

The autumn’s yellowing noons! + 

I only toss my purple jets, + 

And thou art one that swoons + 

Upon a night of gust and roar, + 

Shipwrecked among the waves, and seems + 

Across the purple hills to roam: + 

Sweet odours touch him from the foam, + 

And downward sinking still he dreams + 

He walks the clover fields at home + 

And hears the rattling teams. + 

All is mine, all is my own! + 

Toss the purple fountain high! + 

The breast of man is a vat of stone; + 

I am alive, I, only I! + 

Thou hast beheld a throated fountain spout + 

Full in the air, and in the downward spray + 

A hovering Iris span the marble tank, + 

Which, as the wind came, ever rose and sank, + 

Violet and red; so my continual play + 

Makes beauty for the Gods with many a prank + 

Of human excellence, while they, + 

Weary of all the noon, in shadows sweet, + 

Supine and heavy-eyed rest in the boundless heat. + 

Let the world’s fountain play! + 

Beauty is pleasant in the eyes of Jove; + 

Betwixt the wavering shadows where he lies + 

He marks the dancing column with his eyes + 

Celestial, and amid his inmost grove + 

Upgathers all his limbs, serenely blest, + 

Lulled by the mellow noise of the great world’s unrest. + 

One heart beats in all nature, differing + 

But in the work it works; its doubts and clamours + 

Are but the waste and brunt of instruments + 

Wherewith a work is done, or as the hammers + 

On forge Cyclopean plied beneath the rents + 

Of lowest Etna, conquering into shape + 

The hard and scattered ore; + 

Choose thou narcotics, and the dizzy grape + 

Outworking passion, lest with horrid crash + 

Thy life go from thee in a night of pain; + 

So tutoring thy vision, shall the flash + 

Of dove white-breasted be to thee no more + 

Than a white stone heavy upon the plain. + 

Hark, the cock crows loud! + 

And without, all ghastly and ill, + 

Like a man uplift in his shroud, + 

The white, white morn is propped on the hill; + 

And adown from the eaves, pointed and chill + 

The icicles ’gin to glitter + 

And the birds with a warble short and shrill + 

Pass by the chamber-window still⁠— + 

With a quick, uneasy twitter! + 

Let me pump warm blood, for the cold is bitter; + 

And wearily, wearily, one by one, + 

Men awake with the weary sun! + 

Life is a phantom shut in thee: + 

I am the master and keep the key; + 

So let me toss thee the days of old + 

Crimson and orange and green and gold; + 

So let me fill thee yet again + 

With a rush of dreams from my spout amain; + 

For all is mine, all is my own: + 

Toss the purple fountain high! + 

The breast of man is a vat of stone, + 

And I am alive, I only, I! + 