The 'Witching Hour

"O Delia!-- I must leave you now;
this parting be not sweet.
But your goodness is too great
and my own wretchedness too deep.
Forgive me then forget me;
don't regret that this must end.
I leave you to tomorrow's dawn
--for I am darkness.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tis the 'witching hour on Hallow's Eve,
--the four great bells have each rung three--
I rise from bed and quit the room,
and steal away to welcome thee.
And padding down these corridors,
faint shafts of moonbeam are my guide;
both hair and body garbed in white,
I fly as fairy through the night.

Descending deep into the keep
I taste the sweat upon my lips,
and feel heat rising in the air,
yet I hear naught but breath and beat.
--I enter my lord's dungeons now,
I see his instr'ments of despair;
and smelling air now filled with dust
I boldly to my master call:

'Spirit, darling, dark one, love!
Again, as promised, I return!
Your "Angel" on the brink of Hell,
doth beg your presence, dark and bleak.
With centuries behind me,
years of lonliness and pain,
I won't endure much longer
if we cannot meet again!
So I, performing fateful rites,
must ask you once again:
unchain youself from Death's cruel grasp
and bridge the gap between us, love!
I cannot bring myself to leap
for what is certain where you well?
Though searching for eternity,
I may not find you in the end.
so No! I will not jump, my lord
But oh! I've waited long, my lord,
So challenge Lady of the Night
and join us once again!'

And yet no stir? There are no sounds?
No sages, shades, nor long-lost sprites?
Nor you my love, and scorner-of-love,
shalt answer anguished cries this night?--
Like every other Hallow's Eve
when I have come to welcome thee
you run, you run away again,
and leave me naught but echoes?:

"Oh Delia! I must leave you now
Though parting be not sweet.
But your goodness is too great
and my own evil much too deep.
Forget me, find another love,
With no regrets that this must end.
I leave you to tomorrow's dawn
--for I am darkness."

But I can't forget you, darling,
and my heart won't turn away,
And so I find to your corruption
I have been enslaved:
I have crumbled, been destroyed;
I've lost myself, and lost my joy.
I long for soothing, gentle night,
(The garish sun I find too bright);
This world's joys are not for me,
as that I wish may never be.
And so I've anguished fifty years,
and watered sorrows with my tears,
and wept each night, and screamed inside,
And cast all but my love aside.
And so reborn in darkness, love,
I've slept and walked in darkness, love,
And dimmed the lights behind my eyes...

....for I am darkness.