Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Mary C. G. Byron b. 1861

The Tryst of the Night

OUT of the uttermost ridge of dusk, where the dark and the day are mingled,

The voice of the Night rose cold and calm—it called through the shadow-swept air;

Through all the valleys and lone hillsides, it pierced, it thrilled, it tingled—

It summoned me forth to the wild seashore, to meet with its mystery there.

Out of the deep ineffable blue, with palpitant swift repeating

Of gleam and glitter and opaline glow, that broke in ripples of light—

In burning glory it came and went,—I heard, I saw it beating,

Pulse by pulse, from star to star,—the passionate heart of the Night!

Out of the thud of the rustling sea—the panting, yearning, throbbing

Waves that stole on the startled shore, with coo and mutter of spray—

The wail of the Night came fitful-faint,—I heard her stifled sobbing:

The cold salt drops fell slowly, slowly, gray into gulfs of gray.

There through the darkness the great world reeled, and the great tides roared, assembling—

Murmuring hidden things that are past, and secret things that shall be;

There at the limits of life we met, and touched with a rapturous trembling—

One with each other, I and the Night, and the skies, and the stars, and sea.