The current halts—no sound, no motion;
A vanished day reflected twice;
The spirit wanes in slow corrosion...
Yet I endure to pay my price.

My price—to keep the lamp still burning
For one who won't come again;
To watch the dusk and know no turning,
Refuse the sleep that numbs the pain.

I pay—for casting earthly chains,
For housing dead within my breast;
I hear them pulsing in my veins—
And never earn repose or rest.

Dares timid soul yet long to waken?
Desires sever every tie
With dayless realms, by God forsaken—
The no-man's-land beneath the sky?