from THE NIGHT
       - Henry Vaughan

Through that pure Virgin-shrine,
That sacred veil drawn o'er thy glorious noon
That men might look and live as Glow-worms shine,
          And face the Moon:
 Wise Nicodemus saw such light
 As made him know his God by night.

Were all my loud, evil days
Calm and unhaunted as is thy dark Tent,
Whose peace but by some Angel's wing or voice
            Is seldom rent;
 Then I in Heaven all the long year
 Would keep, and never wander here.

But living where the Sun
Doth all things wake, and where all mix and tyre
Themselves and others, I consent and run
            To every myre,
 And by this world's ill-guiding light,
 Err more than I can do by night.

There is in God (some say)
A deep but dazzling darkness; as men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
             See not all clear;
 O for that night! where I in Him
 Might live invisible and dim.