At midnight, when the night did dance

 Along the hours that led to morning,

 I saw a little boat advance

 Towards the great moon’s beacon warning.

 (The moon, God’s Slave, who lights her torch,

 Lest men should slip between the bars,

 And run aground on Heav’n, and scorch

 To death upon a bank of stars.)

 The little boat, on leaning keel,

 Sang up the mountains of the sea,

 Bearing a man who hoped to steal

 God’s Slave from out eternity.

“My love, I see you through my tears. 

No pity in your face I see. 

I have sailed far across the years: 

Stretch out, stretch out your arms to me.

“My love, I have an island seen, 

So shadowed, God’s most piercing star

Shall never see where we have been, 

Shall never whisper where we are.

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