Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. 1918.

64. Tree and Sky

LET my soul, a shining tree,

Silver branches lift towards thee,

Where on a hallowed winter’s night

The clear-eyed angels may alight.

And if there should be tempests in

My spirit, let them surge like din

Of noble melodies at war;

With fervour of such blades of triumph as are

Flashed in white orisons of saints who go

On shafts of glory to the ecstasies they know.